Opinion ID: 786794
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Crossan's Obligation To Seek the Necessary Jury Findings

Text: 109 Finally, we note that Kerman has argued that Crossan waived his qualified immunity defense by, inter alia, failing to move pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a) at trial for judgment as a matter of law and by failing to submit the necessary fact-specific questions to the jury. The district court concluded that Crossan had preserved his qualified immunity defense by, inter alia, pressing that issue during the jury deliberations at the first trial and moving for judgment as a matter of law prior to jury deliberations at the second trial. Kerman III, 2003 WL 328297, at  n. 7. These two rationales are untenable. The first trial concerned only claims of excessive force and battery; a qualified immunity argument made at that trial could not preserve a defense of qualified immunity to the (already dismissed) claim of unlawful seizure. And while the second trial did involve the reinstated seizure claims, defendants' JMOL motion, which is quoted in its entirety in Part I.E. above, addressed solely the merits of Kerman's claims under the First Amendment. As there was no mention of either qualified immunity or the Fourth Amendment, the JMOL motion did not preserve the defense at issue here. 110 Nonetheless, for the reasons that follow, we agree with the district court that Crossan did not waive his qualified immunity defense by failing to make a Rule 50 motion prior to submission of the case to the jury. But we also agree with Kerman that the defense was effectively waived by Crossan's failure to request that the necessary predicate factual questions be submitted to the jury. Rule 50(a) provides as follows: 111 (1) If during a trial by jury a party has been fully heard on an issue and there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to find for that party on that issue, the court may determine the issue against that party and may grant a motion for judgment as a matter of law against that party with respect to a claim or defense that cannot under the controlling law be maintained or defeated without a favorable finding on that issue. 112 (2) Motions for judgment as a matter of law may be made at any time before submission of the case to the jury. Such a motion shall specify the judgment sought and the law and the facts on which the moving party is entitled to the judgment. 113 Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a) (emphases added). If the court does not grant such a motion during trial, the movant may renew the motion within 10 days after the entry of judgment. Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b) 114 These provisions normally mean that a party is not allowed to move for judgment as a matter of law after trial without having made such a motion prior to submission of the case to the jury. See, e.g., McCardle v. Haddad, 131 F.3d 43, 50 (2d Cir.1997). The purpose of Rule 50's requiring a pre-deliberations motion for JMOL is to alert the opposing party to the supposed deficiencies in his proof, see, e.g., Galdieri-Ambrosini v. National Realty & Development Corp., 136 F.3d 276, 286-87 (2d Cir.1998); Piesco v. Koch, 12 F.3d at 340; Baskin v. Hawley, 807 F.2d 1120, 1134 (2d Cir.1986), thereby affording the nonmoving party an opportunity to cure any deficiency in that party's proof that may have been overlooked until called to the party's attention by a late motion for judgment, Fed.R.Civ.P. 50 Advisory Committee Note (1991); see, e.g., Davis v. Rodriguez, 364 F.3d 424, 432 (2d Cir.2004). 115 However, as indicated by the language of the Rule itself, a prerequisite for the granting of a Rule 50 motion is that there [be] no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to find for th[e] party against whom judgment as a matter of law is sought. Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a)(1). As discussed in Part II.A.1., the standard for judgment as a matter of law is the same as the standard for summary judgment. Thus, when the court of appeals, on a prior appeal in the same case, has held that the evidence in the record is legally sufficient to prevent summary judgment in favor of a given party, that party is foreclosed from arguing that virtually the same evidence, presented at trial, is not legally sufficient to avoid judgment as a matter of law. 116 Rule 1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides that the Rules shall be construed and administered to secure just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of actions. Fed.R.Civ.P. 1. In circumstances such as these, we cannot, consistent with Rule 1, construe Rule 50 to require a pre-deliberations motion for judgment as a matter of law. Such a motion would invite the trial court to commit error, for the motion could not properly be granted in light of the law-of-the-case doctrine; it thus hardly seems just to require that such a motion be made. Further, if the court granted the motion, disregarding the law of the case, a new trial (in this case, Kerman's third trial) would be required — hardly a just, speedy, or inexpensive course. Nor would it be expeditious to require the movant to fashion a conditional pre-deliberations motion for JMOL where there are multiple material factual disputes, for the permutations of possible findings could easily become unwieldy. Here, for example, the disputes pertinent to Crossan's qualified immunity defense included (1) whether Crossan hung up on Dr. Malone, bypassing the opportunity to get a medical opinion on Kerman's condition (2) whether Crossan talked to any doctor, (3) whether Pontrelli had any conversation with Dr. Malone about Kerman's condition, (4) whether Kerman refused to respond to questions, (5) whether Kerman's emotional state exhibited dangerousness, and (6) whether the condition of his apartment suggested dangerousness. A conditional Rule 50 motion hypothesizing favorable (to Crossan) jury answers to one or more of these questions would have entailed analysis of more than a score of possible combinations. 117 We conclude that when the law-of-the-case doctrine precludes the granting of a motion for judgment as a matter of law on a given issue prior to submission of the case to the jury because the appellate court has held, on substantially the same evidentiary record, that as to that issue there are questions of fact that must be resolved by the jury, it would be inappropriate to conclude that a party's failure to make such a motion prior to submission of the case to the jury constituted a waiver of its right to request judgment in its favor after the jury has returned a verdict and has resolved the pertinent factual disputes in its favor. Here, where the record at trial was virtually the same as the record before this Court in Kerman II, see Part II.A.2. above, judgment as a matter of law prior to jury findings of fact was precluded by our decision in Kerman II, and we thus reject the contention that Crossan waived his defense by failing to make a motion for the forbidden relief. 118 This conclusion does not, however, mean that there was not a waiver of a different sort, for Crossan, who had the burden of proving his defense of qualified immunity, failed to ask that the jury be given interrogatories that were sufficiently specific to permit it to resolve the factual disputes that were material to his defense. Although, as discussed in Part II.A. above, the ultimate question of whether a defendant official is entitled to qualified immunity is one for the court, when the relevant factual disputes have been resolved by a jury the court must base its legal ruling on the facts as found by the jury. In Kerman II we observed that a finding that the officers violated the Constitution does not necessarily prevent the application of qualified immunity, 261 F.3d at 240; that [o]nce the outstanding factual questions are answered, the court could decide whether, even if Crossan violated the Fourth Amendment, he is nevertheless entitled to qualified immunity, id. at 241; and that a jury should decide what transpired between the officers and Kerman, id. 119 At the new trial, however, no precise questions as to the actual events and circumstances were submitted to the jury. As described in Part I.E. above, Crossan pursued his qualified immunity defense simply by requesting that the jury be asked to make a finding as to whether his decision to detain and hospitalize Kerman was supported by probable cause. The district court likewise, in colloquy with counsel, identified the only factual question to be put to the jury on Crossan's qualified immunity defense as whether Crossan had [p]robable cause to send [Kerman] to the hospital. (Tr. 465.) Accordingly, the court gave no other instruction with respect to qualified immunity. 120 The jury was asked, in accordance with Fed.R.Civ.P. 49(b), to answer the 17 interrogatories described in Part I.E. above and to return a general verdict (Tr. 765; see also id. at 729, 734). Those interrogatories, which were approved by both sides['] counsel, Kerman III, 2003 WL 328297, at , made no distinction between Crossan's position as to immunity on the seizure and false imprisonment claims and his position as to the merits of those claims. Thus, the interrogatories did not ask, for example, whether Kerman appeared to be mentally unstable, whether his apartment was filthy or merely messy, whether Pontrelli obtained any medical information from Dr. Malone, whether Crossan himself obtained information about Kerman's condition by conversing with a doctor, or whether Crossan hung up on Dr. Malone and thereby knowingly or recklessly bypassed an opportunity to obtain expert information as to whether Kerman posed a danger to himself or others. 121 Although subpart (a) of Rule 49 permits the trial court, in some circumstances, to supply an omitted finding that would complete a jury's verdict, see, e.g., 9 Moore's Federal Practice § 49.11[4], at 49-32 (3d ed.2003), Rule 49(a) does not apply where the jury, in accordance with Rule 49(b), has returned a general verdict, making a finding as to ultimate liability, see, e.g., Jarvis v. Ford Motor Co., 283 F.3d 33, 56 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1019, 123 S.Ct. 539, 154 L.Ed.2d 427 (2002). Here, having requested and received from the jury a general verdict, and having asked, with respect to the immunity defenses, only whether Crossan had probable cause, the court was not permitted to make findings as to other facts. 122 In the circumstances of this litigation, if the requisite fact questions had been submitted to the jury, and if the jury had answered them favorably to Crossan, the district court would then have had the authority, despite the absence of a Rule 50 motion, to make the ultimate legal determination of whether Crossan was entitled to qualified immunity on the Fourth Amendment claim, or whether there was privilege on the state-law claims, based on the jury's factual findings. To the extent that a particular finding of fact was essential to an affirmative defense, however, it was incumbent on Crossan to request that the jury be asked the pertinent question. Not having made such a request, Crossan was not entitled to have the court, in lieu of the jury, make the finding. The material factual issues as to Crossan's defenses not having been resolved by the jury, we reverse the district court's ruling that Crossan's decision to detain and hospitalize Kerman was protected by privilege or qualified immunity. 123