Court Opinion

ID: 9448415
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:35:09.696461+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:25.461168
License: Public Domain

*648HUTCHESON, Circuit Judge
(Dissenting).
When the parties were first here in 1953 1 and later when they were before the Supreme Court on certiorari,2 the issues on review were defined by the findings of the late Judge Bryant who heard the cause originally. These were that plaintiffs had violated specified warranties of the marine policy sued on against pledge, sale, and other use than for private pleasure unless, with the insurer’s special permission, endorsed on the policy. Judge Bryant ruled: “I don’t think any other findings are necessary”, inasmuch as he then understood and held that the rule that requires literal performance of warranties was a rule of the general maritime law where a marine policy was concerned which could not be affected by state statutes, and this court, in 201 F.2d 833, supra, in principle affirmed this ruling.
On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, 348 U.S. 310, 75 S.Ct. 368, 99 L.Ed. 337, supra, the decision of this court and that of Judge Bryant, to the effect that literal performance as matter of law irrevocably governed the rights of the parties to a marine policy and state statutes could have no effect on that law, were reversed and the cause was remanded to the United States District Court for a trial under appropriate state law. The majority opinion of the Supreme Court concluded as follows:
“Under our present system of diverse State regulations, which is as old as the Union, the insurance business has become one of the great enterprises of the Nation. Congress has been exceedingly cautious about disturbing this system, even as to marine insurance where Congressional power is undoubted. We, like Congress, leave the regulation of marine insurance where it has been — with the States.
“The judgments of the Court of Appeals and the District Court are reversed and the cause is remanded to the District Court for a trial under appropriate state law.”
In the light of this opinion, the district judge conducted a complete new trial on the facts and the law, and, in the findings of fact and conclusions of law, set out in his memorandum opinion,3 dealt fully with all of the issues. Concluding that the contract was a Texas contract and that Texas law controlled, he found and gave judgment for the plaintiff, and this appeal is from that judgment.
The appellant is here taking the same position that it has taken on the prior hearings and appeals, that since the policy in question was a marine policy, general maritime law controlled, a strict and literal compliance was required, and Texas statutes, enacted to mitigate the rigors and the hardships of such strict policy construction, by introducing issues of fact,4 where there had been only issues of law, were without application. Attacking each of the district judge’s findings of fact and conclusions of law in plaintiffs’ favor, therefore, as without basis in fact and in law, appellant insists that the judgment must be reversed. The majority opinion completely espouses appellant’s views. I cannot accept them.
On the contrary, I am of the clear opinion: that under the controlling decisions, including that of the Supreme Court in this case, the district judge correctly construed and applied the Texas statutes; that his findings of fact are well supported by the evidence of record; and that his legal conclusions are in accord with the controlling law.
The record is a large one, the facts and issues are voluminous. Because, however, of the full, thorough, and accurate way in which the district judge has in *649his memorandum opinion set the facts out and canvassed and applied the controlling facts and law in the case, it will be sufficient for me to say that I approve, adopt and affirm his findings and conclusions, for the reasons and upon the considerations stated in his opinion. So approving, I respectfully dissent from the opinion and judgment of the majority.

. Wilburn Boat Co. v. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co., 201 F.2d 833 (1953).

. Wilburn Boat Co. v. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co., 348 U.S. 310, 75 S.Ct. 368, 99 L.Ed. 337 (1954).

. Wilburn Boat Co. v. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co., D.C., 199 F.Supp. 784.

. See “Law and Fact in Insurance Cases”, Joseph C. Hutcheson, Jr., Texas Law Review, Vol. XXIII, No. 1.