Task: songer_direct1

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Your task is to determine the ideological directionality of the court of appeals decision, coded as "liberal" or "conservative". Consider liberal to be for government tax claim; for person claiming patent or copyright infringement; for the plaintiff alleging the injury; for economic underdog if one party is clearly an underdog in comparison to the other, neither party is clearly an economic underdog; in cases pitting an individual against a business, the individual is presumed to be the economic underdog unless there is a clear indication in the opinion to the contrary; for debtor or bankrupt; for government or private party raising claim of violation of antitrust laws, or party opposing merger; for the economic underdog in private conflict over securities; for individual claiming a benefit from government; for government in disputes over government contracts and government seizure of property; for government regulation in government regulation of business; for greater protection of the environment or greater consumer protection (even if anti-government); for the injured party in admiralty - personal injury; for economic underdog in admiralty and miscellaneous economic cases. Consider the directionality to be "mixed" if the directionality of the decision was intermediate to the extremes defined above or if the decision was mixed (e.g., the conviction of defendant in a criminal trial was affirmed on one count but reversed on a second count or if the conviction was afirmed but the sentence was reduced). Consider "not ascertained" if the directionality could not be determined or if the outcome could not be classified according to any conventional outcome standards.

PER CURIAM:
A highway construction contractor appeals a judgment in favor of an injured employee of a telephone cable installer. The injuries occurred when defendant’s pile driver hit a telephone cable suspended across the highway construction area and pulled the cable-laying vehicle over the plaintiff. This diversity case was tried to a jury which awarded $28,000 in damages.
The plaintiff was in charge of the cable installation, and defendant contends that the plaintiff was contribu-torily negligent as a matter of law because he left the cable suspended at a height that would be likely to bring it into contact with other machinery using the working area.
Defendant also asserts that there was insufficient evidence of his employee’s negligence to go to the jury, that the instructions to the jury were erroneous, and that the verdict was excessive.
In Montana, “questions of fact are for [the] determination of the jury; it is only in cases where the facts admit of only one interpretation by reasonable men that the judge can decide the question as a matter of law.” Graham v. Ro-landson, 150 Mont. 270, 435 P.2d 263, 268 (1967).
The jury was presented with conflicting testimony as to the height of the pile driver, the height at which the cable was suspended, and other material questions. Whether the parties acted as reasonable, prudent persons under all the existing circumstances was a matter for the jury.
Defendant urges that the district court erred in instructing the jury that the pile-driver operator had a duty to keep a proper lookout at the time and place in question. We have examined the state cases cited, and are satisfied that a Montana vehicle operator, like an operator elsewhere, does not have the privilege of moving specially-licensed over-height equipment without keeping a reasonable lookout for overhead obstructions. See Johnson v. Herring, 89 Mont. 156, 295 P. 1100 (1931).
The judge did instruct the jury that the plaintiff had a duty to place the cable at least eighteen feet above the ground, as required by Montana law and the National Electric Safety Code. He also instructed the jury fully on contributory negligence. Defendant now urges that the judge should also have given a requested instruction on assumption of the risk. We have been cited to no Montana rule that requires a court to favor defendants with such a duplication of instructions in a case of this kind.
The refusal to order a remittitur was within the discretion of the trial court. Southern Pacific Co. v. Guthrie, 186 F.2d 926 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 341 U.S. 904, 71 S.Ct. 614, 95 L.Ed. 1343 (1951). The verdict was generous in light of the medical evidence, but no clear abuse of discretion was shown.
Affirmed.

Question: What is the ideological directionality of the court of appeals decision?
A. conservative
B. liberal
C. mixed
D. not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: B