Opinion ID: 24455
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Distinguishing Between Decisions on Law and Facts in Louisiana Cases

Text: 20 Under the Louisiana state constitution, the general rule as to the scope of appellate review in civil cases is that the jurisdiction of the supreme court and the courts of appeal extend to questions of fact as well as to questions of law. La. Const. Art. V §§ 5(C) & 10(B). Jurisdiction to review findings of facts, resulting from Louisiana's history as a hybrid civil and common law jurisdiction, has been interpreted as giving the supreme court and courts of appeal the power to decide factual issues de novo. See, e.g., Rosell v. Esco, 549 So. 2d 840, 844 n.2 (La. 1989). 9 The exercise of this power is limited by the jurisprudential rule of practice that the factual finding by a trial judge or jury will not be upset unless it is manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong. Id. When an appellate court finds that a reversible error of law was made in the trial court or a manifest error of material fact was made by the trial court or jury, however, the reviewing court is required to redetermine the facts de novo from the entire record and render a judgment on the merits. Id. (citing Gonzales v. Xerox Corp., 320 So. 2d 163 (La. 1975); McLean v. Hunter, 495 So. 2d 1298 (La. 1986); Otto v. State Farm Mut. Ins. Co., 455 So. 2d 1175 (La. 1984); Ragas v. Argonaut Southwest Ins. Co., 388 So. 2d 707 (La. 1980)). The manifest error doctrine also makes it possible for different triers of fact to validly reach different conclusions concerning the same set of facts. See Knighten v. Am. Auto. Ins. Co., 121 So. 2d 344, 349 (La. Ct. App. 1st Cir. 1960) 21 [C]onflicting decisions upon the same issue of fact do not necessarily connote erroneous judicial action. Differences in proof and the latitude necessarily allowed to the trier of fact in each case to weigh and draw inferences from evidence and to pass upon the credibility of witnesses, might lead an appellate court to conclude that in none is the judgment erroneous. 22 Id. (quoting Worcester County Trust Co. v. Riley, 302 U.S. 292, 299 (1937))(discussing how the court reached a different result from that in Johnson v. Wilson, 97 So. 2d 674, 679 (La. 1957), rev'd on other grounds, 118 So. 2d 450 (La. 1960), when the basic facts in the two cases were the same). See also State, Dep't of Highways v. Martin, 215 So. 2d 142, 143 (La.Ct.App. 3rd Cir. 1968); Wright v. Paramount-Richards Theatres, 198 F. 2d 303, 308 (5th Cir. 1952). 23 Unlike the Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Louisiana Constitution contains no guarantee, in civil cases, of a right to trial by jury and no restriction upon appellate reexamination of facts tried by a jury. As this court observed in Wright, 198 F.2d at 306, As a consequence of [the appellate review of facts in Louisiana], in civil jury cases federal courts evaluating decisions of Louisiana state courts as precedents have the difficult task of separating the decisions of the Louisiana courts on the law from their review of the facts. (emphasis added). Accord Miskell v. S. Seafood Co., 439 F.2d 790, 792 (5th Cir. 1971); see also Shirey v. Louisville & Nashville R.Co., 327 F.2d 549, 552 (5th Cir. 1964); Great Am. Indem. Co. v. Inkenbrandt, 306 F.2d 117, 119 (5th Cir. 1962); St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company v. Heath, 302 F.2d 326, 328 (5th Cir. 1962); Gov't Employees Ins. Co. v. Davis, 266 F.2d 760, 764 (5th Cir. 1959); LaBuff v. Texas & New Orleans R.R. Co., 126 F.Supp. 759, 763 (W.D. La. 1954); Boeing Co. v. Shipman, 411 F.2d 365, 379 n.4 (5th Cir. 1969)(en banc)(Rives, J., concurring), overruled on other grounds by Gautreaux v. Scurlock Marine, Inc., 107 F.3d 331, 337 & 339 (5th Cir. 1997); William E. Crawford, Life on a Federal Island in the Civilian Sea, 15 MSCLR 1, 7-8 (1994). 24 Thus, in diversity cases, a federal court or jury can be bound by a Louisiana court's creation or interpretation of state law but not by a state court's finding or decision on the facts of a particular case. Wright, 198 F.2d at 308. Indeed, it is an error of law for a federal district court in a diversity case to base its ruling on a motion for judgment as a matter of law (or, formerly, on a judgment notwithstanding the verdict) on the findings of Louisiana courts on facts as distinguished from their decisions on law. Id. at 307-08. 10 25 Accordingly, in evaluating the Louisiana decisions cited by Nut Hustler in support of its motion for judgment as a matter of law, we must first determine whether the state decisions upon which it relies make or interpret state law on point. After carefully studying those Louisiana cases, we conclude that none of them do so. Rather, each decision relied upon by Nut Hustler constitutes only a finding of an adjudicative fact 11 specific to that particular case, viz., whether the claimant's damage in that particular case arose from a reasonably expected use of the specific product. Because each of the Louisiana decisions relied upon by Nut Hustler with respect to the issue of reasonably anticipated use is a decision making a finding of fact, rather than a decision making or interpreting law, the jury, the district court, and this court are not bound in this diversity case by those state cases on their findings of facts with respect to the issue of reasonably anticipated use. 26 Actually, Nut Hustler does not contend that the Louisiana cases it cites make or interpret state law with respect to the reasonably expected use of a product. Nut Hustler argues instead that we must grant its motion for judgment as a matter of law because in a number of cases Louisiana courts have found that a claimant's injury did not arise from a reasonably expected use of a product based on facts that were closely analogous or strikingly similar to the present circumstances. That argument is based on a faulty notion of binding factual precedents, however, which is contrary to the well-settled jurisprudence of this circuit that in diversity cases we are bound by Louisiana courts' decisions making or interpreting state law but not by their findings of facts in particular cases. See Wright, 198 F.2d at 307-08; Miskell, 439 F.2d at 791; Shirey, 327 F.2d at 552 (5th Cir. 1964); Inkenbrandt, 306 F.2d at 119; St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 302 F.2d at 328; Davis, 266 F.2d at 764; LaBuff, 126 F.Supp. at 763; Boeing, 411 F.2d at 379 n.4 (Rives, J., concurring). 27 That the Louisiana cases cited by Nut Hustler represent only findings of facts in particular cases with respect to reasonably expected use of a product, not the making or interpreting of law on that issue, is evident from a brief survey of them. (Also evident is the questionableness of Nut Hustler's contention that the Louisiana decisions it cites are closely analogous or strikingly similar to the present case on the facts. The Louisiana cases involve a wide array of dissimilar products and uses, and none of them involves the use of a pecan harvester. We pretermit discussion of the factual analogies or contrasts between those decisions and the case at bar, however. They are not relevant to our decision, because we are not bound by the state courts' findings of facts in our review of this federal diversity civil jury trial.) 28 In Myers v. American Seating Co., 93-1350 (La. App. 1 Cir. 5/20/94), 637 So. 2d 771, relied upon heavily by Nut Hustler, the court of appeal reversed a directed verdict for the manufacturer on the issues of the unreasonable dangerousness and reasonably anticipated use of a folding chair because based on the evidence presented to the jury, reasonable people could have reached a different conclusion. Id. at 778. After conducting a trial de novo on the record, the court of appeal found that the plaintiff's use of the folding chair as a step ladder by standing on the rear part of the chair's seat was not a reasonably anticipated use of the chair and that the product was not unreasonably dangerous in design or otherwise. This case illustrates that the Louisiana courts regard the question of whether a particular use of a product was reasonably anticipated as a question of fact for the jury when reasonable people could disagree as to the answer; and that if the trial judge errs in not sending the issue to the jury, the court of appeal will decide that question of fact as the trier of the facts in a trial de novo on the entire record. Thus, the court of appeal in Myers made a finding of fact, and did not make or interpret state law, on the issue of reasonably expected use of a product. 29 In Kelley v. Hanover Ins., 98-506 (La. App. 5 Cir. 11/25/98), 722 So. 2d 1133, 1137, a teenage boy died as the result of his intentional inhalation of propane gas to get high. The appellate court upheld summary judgment for the defendant manufacturers on the issue of whether intentional inhalation was a reasonably anticipated use of the product because the evidentiary basis in that case was not sufficient to support a reasonable trier of fact's finding to the contrary. Again, this case does not establish a rule of law or change the LPLA's legal definition of reasonably anticipated use; it merely decides that based on the summary judgment evidence presented in that particular case a reasonable trier of fact could not have found for the claimant on that issue. 30 In Ford v. Beam Radiator, Inc., 96-2787 (La. App. 1 Cir. 2/20/98), 708 So. 2d 1158, 1162, a radiator cap's cast-iron boss was welded to the stainless steel stud after it was sold, eliminating the taper lock feature. The appellate court upheld the jury's factual finding for the defendant manufacturer on the issue of reasonably anticipated use because the record provided a reasonable basis for the jury to conclude that the improper modification by welding was not a misuse that could be reasonably anticipated. Id. Again, Nut Hustler does not and cannot point to any law established or interpreted by the decision but mistakenly claims that we are bound by its case-specific factual finding. 31 In Johnson v. Black & Decker U.S., Inc., 29-996 (La. App. 2 Cir. 10/31/97), 701 So. 2d 1360, 1365, after reviewing the record, the appellate court affirmed the jury's factual finding that the plaintiff's use of a power miter saw without the safety guard, which was attached at the time of the sale, should not have been reasonably anticipated by the defendant manufacturer. Far from being a creation of law or a gloss on the LPLA, this was simply an appellate determination that the jury's finding of fact was not unreasonable; the appeals court did not address whether a contrary finding also would have been reasonable based on that particular evidentiary record. In other words, the appellate court made no law because it merely reviewed the jury's findings of fact for manifest error and, finding none, affirmed. 32 In Hoyt v. Wood/Chuck Chipper Corp., 92-1498 (La. App. 1 Cir. 1/6/95), 651 So. 2d 1344, 1352, the appellate court, upon its own review of the record, made a finding of fact de novo that the manufacturer should not have reasonably expected the replacement of the key-activated starter switch on a woodchipper with a less safe flip-on toggle switch. Moreover, Peterson v. G.H. Bass and Co., Inc., 97-2843 (La. App. 4 Cir. 5/20/98), 713 So. 2d 806, affirmed a summary judgment that, on the particular evidentiary basis in that case, in which the plaintiffs presented no evidence to the contrary, the manufacturer reasonably should not have expected teenage girls to intentionally inhale vapors from products expressly designed and labeled for the care of shoes. 12 33 The foregoing analysis of the Louisiana court decisions and the federal Louisiana diversity decisions relied upon by Nut Hustler demonstrates that each case presents only a finding of fact on the issue of reasonably anticipated use with respect to the evidentiary basis of that particular case. None of those cases represents a creation or interpretation of Louisiana law with respect to reasonably anticipated use. Consequently, Nut Hustler's sample of Louisiana cases presents no decision on state law that is binding on the jury, the district court, or this court in the present diversity case with respect to the reasonably anticipated use issue. 13