Court Opinion

ID: 9457092
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:12:21.622718+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:13.116206
License: Public Domain

PECK, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
While I concur in the result reached in the majority opinion, it seems to me that it goes further than we are required to go under the circumstances of this case.
It is apparent from the record that the “yard limits” are not capable of precise delineation. In such a situation both logic and the authorities support the conclusion of the majority opinion that defendant’s response during the early discovery procedure period to an interrogatory to the effect that the train was not within the yard limits at the time of the occurrence should not be binding on it. Thus I agree that the defendant was entitled to offer evidence on this point even though it be inconsistent with the answer to the interrogatory, and that the requested instruction describing that answer as an admission against interest was properly denied. However, the majority opinion goes on to quote with apparent approval from Victory Carriers, Inc. v. Stockton Stevedoring Company, 388 F.2d 955 (9th Cir. 1968) as follows: “An answer to an interrogatory is comparable to answers, which may be mistaken, given in deposition testimony or during the course of the trial itself.” That statement, which is pure dicta, seems to say that even the direct testimony of a party from the witness stand is not binding on him. It is interesting to note that Victory Carriers is cited by Professor Moore (4 W. Moore ¶ 33.29[2] (2d ed.)) simply for the proposition that answers to interrogatories are not always binding, a proposition which provides sufficient basis for the result we reach in the present case. It is further noted that neither Gadaleta v. Nederlandsch-Amerekaansche Stoomvart, 291 F.2d 212 (2d Cir. 1961) nor Heilig v. Studebaker Corporation, 347 F.2d 686 (10th Cir. 1965), also cited in the majority opinion, stands for any broader rule of law.
I would affirm the conclusion of the District Court on the ground that defendant’s response during the discovery procedure period to an interrogatory not capable of a precise answer was not binding on it, leaving open the question of whether an answer to an interrogatory might not in other circumstances be binding on a party.