Court Opinion

ID: 9455642
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:28:20.879904+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:40.146776
License: Public Domain

JOHN R. BROWN, Chief Judge
(concurring) .
I concur in the result and all of the opinion. I add this only by way of emphasis.
Here much confusion, appellate uncertainty, and possibly additional proceedings have been avoided by the use of special interrogatories with a general charge. Instead of being faced with that enigma wrapped in a mystery — the unrevealing general verdict — we have a clear indication that the jury found that the insured died as a result of suicide. And because of this the issues here are drawn tight.
The wonderful device of special interrogatories with a general charge (F. R.Civ.P. 49(a)) enable both the trial and appellate Court to know precisely what has been found. Brown, Federal Special Verdicts: The Doubt Eliminator, in Proceedings of the Annual Judicial Conference, Tenth Judicial Circuit of the United States, 44 F.R.D. 245 at 338 (1967). Horne v. Georgia Southern & Fla. Ry. Co., 5 Cir., 1970, 421 F.2d 975, 980 (Brown concurring).