Court Opinion

ID: 9637245
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:01:12.224299+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:54.615567
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Where liability asserted against several defendants is so far intertwined that decision as to each must turn in substantial part upon the same question of fact or law, judgments for some of them only are not final and appealable. This is the quite well-settled law; there are no precedents to the contrary so far as I can discover. The principle is sometimes expressed as applicable to defendants jointly liable; but the word jointly is, of course, not used in the strictest sense of the more ancient common law where a concert of interest was looked for, since the more usual application of the principle has been to cases of defendants liable concurrently or successively for negligence. Hunteman v. New Orleans Public Service, Inc., 5 Cir., 119 F.2d 465, certiorari denied 314 U.S. 647, 62 S.Ct. 89, 86 L.Ed. 519; Atwater v. North American Coal Corp., 2 Cir., 111 F.2d 125; Goldstein v. Groesbeck, 2 Cir., 142 F.2d 422, 425, 154 A.L.R. 1285, certiorari denied 323 U.S. 737, 65 S.Ct. 36; Studer v. Moore, 2 Cir., 153 F.2d 902; Reliable Transfer Co. v. Blanchard, 5 Cir., 145 F.2d 551; Kuhn v. Canteen Food Service, Inc., 7 Cir., 150 F.2d 55. This case is more clearly within the rule than some of those cited; for here the liability of the two appealing defendants depends on the main liability of the original charterer which has not yet been determined. Oneida Nav. Corp. v. W. & S. Job & Co., 252 U.S. 521, 40 S.Ct. 357, 64 L.Ed. 697; Hohorst v. Hamburg-American Packet Co., 148 U.S. 262, 13 S.Ct. 590, 37 L.Ed. 443. Plaintiff’s claim of judgment “against the defendants jointly or in the alternative” obviously means only that it desires judgment against such of the defendants (beginning necessarily with the charterer) as it can hold legally. That is, this is not even a case of tru'e alternatives (which would still seem within the principle) ; it is a case of successive liability or liability over, as in the Oneida and Iiohorst cases.
The case of Reeves v. Beardall, 316 U.S. 283, 286, 62 S.Ct. 1085, 1087, 86 L.Ed. 1478, dealt with a different question, the appealability of separate claims or causes of action, not the appealability of orders against some, but not all, of the codefendants. The Court, however, recognized the principle, saying: “Hence no question is presented here as respects the appealability of a judgment dismissing a complaint as to one of several defendants alleged to be jointly liable on the same claim. See Hunteman v. New Orleans Public Service, Inc., 5 Cir., 119 F.2d 465.” The Court has recently reiterated the long-standing federal policy “against piecemeal litigation” and separate appeals in Catlin v. United States, 324 U.S. 229, 233, 234, 65 S.Ct. 631. See also United States v. Florian, 312 U.S. 656, 61 S.Ct. 713, 85 L.Ed. 1105, and Studer v. Moore, supra. The various points made in the opinion here would of course be open to the parties below at any time up to final judgment. Western States Machine Co. v. S. S. Hepworth Co., 2 Cir., 152 F.2d 79. The appeals should be dismissed.
I must add that I find great difficulty in working out the test of separability implied in the opinion. Suggestions that the principle is restricted to cases of liability alleged to result “from the same set of facts constituting a single tortious act,” or to be “dependent upon or interrelated with the liability of each other defendant,” or “predicated Upon separate facts and separate theories, even though they all grow out of a single business venture,” or enforceable in “separate” actions *382with separate judgments, are surely shown to be quite insufficient by the very authorities cited. For those apply the principle to tort-feasors separately suable for concurrent and, of course, different tortious acts, and to principal and agent or indemnitor and indemnitee, not only separately suable, bu't where liability of each depends on separate facts and separate theories — with, of course, some overlapping of the evidence to present the problem. And that is just the case here. While it is said that the liability of the present appellees depends not upon the liability of the charterer, but upon “the legal effect of their own later acts and undertakings,” this is quite clearly an incomplete analysis. Their liability in the first instance depends on whether there is any freight due under the charter, and, if so, how much; until that is established, there is no possibility of any liability against either appellee here. Hence for present purposes, the case exactly parallels that of indemnitor and indemnitee. Oneida Nav. Corp. v. W. & S. Job & Co., supra. Consider also a case su'ch as Bank of Rondout v. Smith, 156 U.S. 330, 15 S.Ct. 358, 39 L.Ed. 441, an equity bill against certain partners and, the purchasers at execution sales on judgments against the partners, or as Moss v. Kansas City Life Ins. Co., 8 Cir., 96 F.2d 108, an action for receivership and accounting against an insolvent insurance company amd others, including a state insurance official, accused of trying to ruin it. The last case also shows that the principle obtains even though the question still at issue is narrow and its answer is indicated. Here we may guess that a trial will quickly show freight charges to be due, but nevertheless we are only guessing. And though the mere fact that other questions involving the liability of the present appellees may seem presently more difficult and interesting, yet the question of liability of the charterer for freight charges remains the primary one upon which all else depends.
Hence we are now upsetting a rule supported by strong public policy and by a particularly long history.1' There is no need for this step, since the rights of the parties are abundantly preserved by trial below, followed by a single complete appeal. There seems to be some thought of sympathy for the appellant, who has gone to the expense of printing a record and ■brief before the question came before us. But up to now, it was acting against the many precedents. With this unsettling of the law, I fear we are inviting piecemeal appeals and making the enforcement of the federal policy difficult and aleatory.

 In addition to cases cited above, see Hewitt v. Charles R. McCormick Lumber Co. of Delaware, 2 Cir., 22 F.2d 925; Bush v. Leach, 2 Cir., 22 F.2d 296; Menge v. Warriner, 5 Cir., 120 F. 816; United States v. Girault, 11 How. 22, 31, 52 U.S. 22, 31, 13 L.Ed. 587. The Curtis and Williams cases cited in the opinion were quite different; the former concerned separate acts of mismanagement of bank directors over differing periods of years; the latter dealt with trustees’ allowances for management of a railroad for some five years during foreclosure upon, and sale of, the railroad property.