Court Opinion

ID: 9498550
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:20:19.557605+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:53.727162
License: Public Domain

BRIGHT, Circuit Judge, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. Corpus testified that Bennett’s excessive force consisted of Bennett striking him on the head with a closed fist, then ramming his knee into Corpus’s stomach, jams “like lightening” causing “a sharp pain.” During an interview conducted two days later by Deputy Tietz, Corpus complained of scratches on his stomach, bruises in his groin area, and back pain. The initial physician’s report reflected lower abdominal and back strain. Corpus’s sister and wife observed that following the incident Corpus changed completely. He led a less active lifestyle, lost a job, and complained of flashbacks, nightmares, and humiliation. He suffered from headaches and he testified that his back pain intensified. He tried physical therapy, saw various doctors, and eventually he receivéd a diagnosis of a herniated disc.
While the defense presented evidence and argued other possible causes for Corpus’s physical, emotional, and employment problems, the jury’s substantial award of $75,000 suggests an intention to compensate actual injuries that conflicts with its finding that “Bennett’s use of excessive force was not a direct cause of substantial injuries to plaintiff Jose Corpus.” The jury’s verdict also conflicts with the district court’s instruction on nominal damages as limited to “some nominal sum such as one dollar.”
It is obvious that the jury did not follow the district court’s instructions and had the trial judge who charged the jury been available to receive the verdict these conflicts may have been clarified. But, in *918fact, a different judge accepted the verdict, commenting: “Obviously I don’t know much about it[,] but I’m guessing you paid careful attention .... I have to go back to my courtroom and back to trial.” The jury was then discharged without clarifying the uncertainty surrounding its verdict answers, and it appears counsel did not receive an opportunity to inspect the verdict and object to the inconsistency.
Corpus in his appellant’s brief argues that “[t]o the extent there was a conflict-between a finding [of] no compensatory damages and $75,000.00 in nominal damages,” the district court should have returned the jury for further deliberations or granted a new trial. See Auwood v. Harry Brandt Booking Office, Inc., 850 F.2d 884, 890-91 (2d Cir.1988). In his conclusion, Corpus asked “in the alternative, he be given a new trial.” Further, because Corpus argues the greater relief of judgment in his favor for $75,000, this court may consider the more limited relief of remand for a new trial. See Haynes v. United States, 390 U.S. 85, 101, 88 S.Ct. 722, 19 L.Ed.2d 923 (1968) (“[Ajuthority under 28 U.S.C. § 2106 [exists] to make such disposition of the case ‘as may be just under the circumstances.’ ”); First Wis. Nat’l Bank of Rice Lake v. Klapmeier, 526 F.2d 77, 80 (8th Cir.1975) (“The parties have not argued the issue in this manner in this court. ... Nonetheless, we feel the right to trial by jury is so fundamental that .... [w]e order a new trial .... ”).
The majority reasons that “[t]he jury’s answers on the special verdict form are consistent if they are read to find no actual injury to Corpus but to award $75,000 to compensate Corpus for the deprivation of his constitutional rights in the absence of actual injury.” Op. at 915. However, the law requires consistency in light of both the interrogatories and the jury instructions, which precluded compensating Corpus for the value of the constitutional deprivation beyond a “nominal sum such as one dollar.” Gallick v. Baltimore & Ohio R.Co., 372 U.S. 108, 119-22, 83 S.Ct. 659, 9 L.Ed.2d 618 (1963) (determining the consistency of the jury’s answers in light of the jury instructions); Firemen’s Ins. Co. of Newark, N.J. v. Craigie, 298 F.2d 457, 457-59 (8th Cir.1962) (where insurance policy covered $75,000 for value of house, $30,000 for its contents, and $15,000 for post-fire living expenses, initial verdict of $75,000 “obviously could not legally have been sustained” and trial judge properly reinstructed the jury that if it decided to find for plaintiffs, it also had to award for contents and living expenses); Rios v. Empresas Lineas Maritimas Argentinas, 575 F.2d 986, 990 (1st Cir.1978) (“When the jury returned the first verdict, which was directly contrary to instructions given by the court, the trial court properly instructed the jury that it had to decide as between Lineas and Fred Imbert on the third party complaint. Resubmitting the case to the jury with renewed instructions has been held proper where the jury has failed to follow the court’s instructions in returning a verdict.”).
The decision reached in this case fails to give proper accord to the Seventh Amendment right to trial by jury. “Maintenance of the jury as a fact-finding body is of such importance and occupies so firm a place in our history and jurisprudence that any seeming curtailment of the right to a jury trial should be scrutinized with the utmost care.” Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U.S. 474, 486, 55 S.Ct. 296, 79 L.Ed. 603 (1935). “[A] view of the case which will make the jury’s finding[s] inconsistent results in a collision with the Seventh Amendment.” Atlantic & Gulf Stevedores, Inc. v. Ellerman Lines, Ltd., 369 U.S. 355, 364, 82 S.Ct. 780, 7 L.Ed.2d 798 (1962).
I agree with the several courts of appeal which have considered verdicts awarding *919substantial damages labeled as “nominal” and recognized the need to remand when the fact-finder’s intent is unclear. Auwood, 850 F.2d at 891-92 (“If in fact there had been an interrogatory asking whether plaintiffs had proven any damages and the jury answered ‘no,’ that answer would have been inconsistent with the answers specifying dollar amounts of damage [labeled as NOMINAL].... Had such an irreconcilable inconsistency existed, the court should have granted a new trial as to damages.”); Magnett v. Pelletier, 488 F.2d 33, 35 (1st Cir.1973) (per curiam) (holding that award of $500 in “nominal damages” in Section 1983 action “cannot be properly regarded as nominal damages” but “[s]ince it is conceivable that the court misspoke itself, fairness dictates a remand for further findings or articulation .... ”). Of course where the record shows no damages, as in United States ex rel. Tyrrell v. Speaker, 535 F.2d 823, 829 & n. 13 (3d Cir.1976), a trial court is justified in reducing an award of $500 damages to a nominal amount such as one dollar.
The risk here is more than remote that the district court disregarded a jury finding of $75,000 in damages, at least some of which compensated for actual injuries, when it reduced the “nominal damages” award to one dollar. Corpus presented evidence of substantial injuries and the jury returned a very substantial award contrary to its finding under interrogatory two of no substantial injuries. The jury may have decided to award a lump sum instead of deliberating on an itemized award under interrogatories four and five. All that can be said with any confidence from this record is that the jury did not follow the district court’s instructions. For these reasons, I would reverse and remand for a new trial.