Court Opinion

ID: 9448719
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:43:25.086555+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:32.081224
License: Public Domain

JOSEPH C. HUTCHESON, Circuit Judge, with whom JONES and GRIFFIN B. BELL, Circuit Judges, join
(dissenting).
When the case was first here, it had been tried to a jury in the district court, and the jury, having been unable to agree, had been discharged and judgment for the defendant entered by the court. On the first appeal, a panel of this court, by a divided vote, held that the evidence was sufficient to require submission to a jury. On a second trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs-benefieiaries, upon which judgment was entered. A second appeal was heard by a different panel of the court, a decision was reached, and an opinion reversing and rendering judgment for the insurer was prepared. Before the opinion was filed, however, a majority of the circuit judges ordered a hearing, or rehearing, before the court en banc, and a decision affirming the judgment followed. For the reasons which are stated below, I feel it my duty to dissent therefrom.
Although the majority declares that it respects and follows the doctrine, time-honored and well established in this circuit, at least, that the decision on a former appeal is the law of the case on questions of law then and there presented, unless the former decision is clearly erroneous and works manifest injustice, and that this doctrine does not constitute a limitation upon the power of the-court to reconsider and if necessary overrule the earlier decision, in the light of the action taken, and declined, by the majority, and of the subsequent language in its opinion, it is as plain as anything can be that while the opinion gives lip-service to that doctrine it does not adhere to it. Substituted in its stead by the majority is an entirely new rule for application in the particular class of case here under consideration. It is a rule which completely eliminates the narrow latitude, carefully limited and circumscribed, formerly available to the court in-the application of the doctrine of the law of the ease. It is a rule which apparently attaches to the earlier decision the conclusive effect of res judicata.
With deference to the views of my brothers, I am unable to perceive either the authority for or the wisdom of abandonment of the doctrine of the law of the case, or of the adoption of a new rule respecting it, in this or any other kind of case. On the contrary, I think that both reason and authority support the-conclusion that it is - the duty of the court in any case properly before it, as a. *116prerequisite to implementation of an earlier decision as the law of the case, to determine whether that decision was clearly in error, and if it was, whether the circumstances are such that a different result should be reached. These determinations require and demand consideration of the case on its merits. Any other course renders empty and meaningless the right of appeal given by Congress to a party aggrieved by the judgment of the trial court, by making the court which hears the appeal a mere “rubber stamp”. This anomalous result is best illustrated by the case at bar. Here the disagreement among the members of the court was considered sufficient to necessitate a hearing before the court en banc. Yet in disposing of the case, a majority of the entire court neither deals with the merits nor applies the doctrine of the law of the case, but holds itself constrained to merely “rubber stamp” the prior decision of two judges, without examination of the correctness of that decision.
The principal case cited by the majority, Chicago, St. P., M. & O. Ry. Co. v. Kulp, 102 F.2d 352, 353, 354, 133 A.L.R. 1445 (8th Cir. 1939), as support for its approach, in fact supports only the traditional application of the doctrine of the law of the case, even in situations where the evidence is the same on successive appeals and the question relates to its sufficiency to justify jury submission,1 ******as this portion of that opinion quoted by the majority reveals:
“ * * * the ‘law of the case’ * * * must be followed * * * [in such circumstances] unless [the former] decision is clearly erroneous and works manifest injustice. * * * [T]his rule of practice * * * should be departed from only after careful consideration on situations arising in specific cases.’’ (Emphasis added)
In this circuit, the traditional doctrine of the law of the case has always been followed heretofore.2
In my view, the most that can be said for the position taken by the majority is that in cases in which the question presented upon appeal is whether the evidence was sufficient to justify or require jury submission, when the evidence is the same as it was on the first appeal, this difference from most other cases, if it can be called a difference, is presented: that it is less likely that clear error in the decision of the prior division will be found, because of the difficulties attending this particular law question. I do not think that this is sufficient reason to refrain from examination of the first decision.
Nor do I think that the fact that the size of the court has increased in recent years is a factor which militates in favor of the majority position. While it is certainly true that the composition of a panel of this court by which a given case will be determined on appeal is governed by the law of chance — from the standpoint of the parties — it need not be so from the standpoint of the court, upon whose shoulders rests responsibility for the proper administration of the judicial process, for there is nothing which pro*117hibits assignment of successive appeals to the same panel. In terms of economy of judicial energy as well, this procedure has much to recommend it. The fact that the parties may or may not be entitled •under the law to, or avail themselves of, multiple appeals seems to me to be of no relevance to the problem at hand. Our primary concern is not with the fact that an appeal may be taken, but with the scope of our duty when the case reaches us.
While no disagreement will be found with the proposition that stability and predictability in the law, as well as the expeditious termination of litigation, are desirable goals in the administration of justice, I think it questionable that the rule announced by the majority materially advances those worthy ends. It might if we were a court of last resort. We must not, however, lose sight of the fact that we do not have the infallibility of finality, and that the litigants have access to yet another court for review of our decision on its merits. As the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has said:
“Our law of the case is not the Supreme Court’s law of the case. Our judgment on the second appeal stands or falls on its merits and has no improved standing before the Supreme Court from the fact that it resulted from an application of our law of the case. This being so, it would seem that if on second appeal we thought our earlier opinion was • erroneous, we ought sensibly to set ourselves right, rather than to invite reversal above.” White v. Higgins, 116 F.2d 312, 317 (1st Cir. 1940)
This statement accords fully with my own views.
By reason of its effectuation of a rule which prevents re-examination of the earlier decision, the majority gives no other basis or reason for affirmance of the judgment in this case. It is sufficient for me to say, therefore, that as for myself I have carefully examined the record and the previous decision in the case, as I believe it is our duty to do in each such case. I conclude that the first decision was clearly in error, for the reasons stated in the dissenting opinion in that case and in the unfiled reversing opinion prepared in the case at bar, and that the earlier opinion is therefore not the law of the case. Turning to the merits, I am of the opinion that the insurer was and is entitled to an instructed verdict as a matter of law, and would reverse the judgment of the trial court and render a verdict for the insurer accordingly. I, therefore, dissent from the opinion of the majority.
Rehearing denied; JOSEPH C. HUTCHESON, JONES and GRIFFIN B. BELL, Circuit Judges, dissenting.

. My reading of tlie cases cited in footnote 1 of the majority opinion reveals that the language of Louisville Tr. Co. v. National Bank of Kentucky, 102 F.2d 137 (6th Cir. 1939); General Motors Acceptance Corp. v. Mid-West Chevrolet Co., 74 F.2d 386 (10th Cir. 1934); and Williams v. Order of Commercial Travelers of America, 41 F.2d 745 (6th Cir. 1930) supports application of the traditional doctrine of the law of the case. Electrical Research Products, Inc. v. Gross, 120 F.2d 301 (9th Cir. 1941) takes no position whatever on the question. In Priester v. Southern Ry. Co., 6 F.2d 878 (4th Cir. 1925) the circumstances were such that the judgment of the trial court on the second trial was in effect entered on the mandate of the appellate court. The view taken by the Sixth Circuit in Carpenter v. Durell, 90 F.2d 57 (6th Cir. 1937), that the first decision on appeal is conclusive, seems not to have been followed in that circuit. See e. g. Louisville Trust Co. v. National Bank of Kentucky, supra.

. In addition to Seagraves v. Wallace and Commercial National Bank v. Connolly, cited by the majority, see Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Ballard, 108 F.2d 768 (5th Cir. 1940).