Opinion ID: 3010396
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: District Court Factual Findings

Text: We turn now to the second area of inquiry on appeal, the area relating to the trial itself. Newman argues that the district court's factual findings in support of its decision to exonerate Consol from liability were clearly erroneous in several respects. First, he contends that Consol did not disclose in pretrial proceedings that it was claiming that the leaving line Newman used was cut after the accident. The evidence Newman has for this contention is one response from Consol's attorney at a pretrial conference. After Newman's attorney asked if the legal theory of the case was that the rope was cut after the accident, Consol's attorney said: No, I don't believe that is the theory. App. at 1110. Newman does not mention, however, that the court responded first to Newman's attorney's inquiry by saying: Well, that has been mentioned as one of the, certainly one of the theories. I don't know that that's, that is the, the theory. Id. Then, after Consol's attorney responded, the court said: But they certainly have, I've seen it in their pretrial report, mentioned there. In the circumstances, Consol's attorney's statement easily can be seen as a response to the court that it was not the only theory, although it was a possible theory. This conclusion is consistent with Consol's earlier statements on the matter. Consol argued in its pretrial statements that the rope was cut, but it did not know when it was cut, and if it had been cut before the accident Newman should have seen it and replaced the rope. App. at 88-89, 1086 (It is presently unknown precisely when the rope in question was cut, or by whom it was cut, except that it was cut prior to being brought to Consolidation's marine ways landing after the alleged accident.). These statements are consistent with the court's factualfinding that Consol cannot be deemed to have waived or disclaimed the issue. Newman also argues that there is no evidence to support the court's finding that Newman slipped. Newman has no memory of the accident, and Stinson, the only witness, was looking away when Newman began to fall and only turned back when Newman already was falling backwards. Thus, Newman is correct that there is no direct evidence that 13 Newman slipped, nor could there be. The district court apparently inferred that Newman slipped after the court first found that the rope did not break, but was cut after the accident. We cannot find these factual findings clearly erroneous because there is clear support for them in the record. Clegg, the expert witness, testified that the rope had been cut almost entirely through except for a few yarns (of 156 total yarns in the rope) on the outside of the rope which broke under tension. Newman appears to argue that the line was cut before the accident, but remained at least partly attached until Newman pulled on it so that it was the breaking of the remaining intact yarns that caused him to fall. This theory is consistent with the facts, but so is the one reached by the district court, that the rope was cut through after the accident. This conclusion is particularly plausible, because it would be fairly obvious if a rope was held together by only a few of 156 yarns, and Newman testified that he would have replaced bad line had he noticed it. We do not decide which version of the facts we find more probable. The district court decided that the rope was cut after the accident and we cannot say that this finding was clearly erroneous. Given the finding that the rope did not break, but was cut, a permissible if not a necessary inference to be drawn is that Newman slipped. He was walking along a 2-3 foot gunnel on the barge with large drop-offs on either side, a situation which presents a severe slipping hazard. We cannot find clear error in the conclusion that he fell in these circumstances. If the rope did not break, and was cut after the accident, then it was not defective. Newman's theory of liability for his unseaworthiness and negligence claims was that Consol provided defective rope. Newman offered no other evidence of Consol's negligence or the unseaworthiness of the tug and the barge. Inasmuch as the court found that the rope was not defective, and we affirm the factual findings supporting this conclusion, the legal finding that there was neither negligence nor unseaworthiness also must be affirmed. 14