Court Opinion

ID: 9640350
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:04:02.490405+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:29.289018
License: Public Domain

Denial of Petition for Rehearing.
 As has already been pointed out, after the District Court had filed its opinion stating the items of damages allowed and the items disallowed and directing counsel for the plaintiffs to prepare findings of fact and declarations of law in accordance with the opinion, the plaintiffs filed a petition for rehearing which, among other things, prayed that the case be reopened with respect to some of the claims of the plaintiffs, for the purpose of enabling them to prove their damages in detail and to the full satisfaction of the court. It is asserted that the court erred in denying this petition, and that -justice required that it should be granted. The petition was addressed to the discretion of the court, and its action in denying it is not reviewable here. First Trust & Savings Bank v. Iowa-Wisconsin Bridge Co., 8 Cir., 98 F.2d 416, 428. It is clear, however, that the court below was not guilty of any abuse of discretion in refusing to reopen the case for the taking of further proofs, upon the showing which was made. There was nothing to indicate that the plaintiffs had not been afforded every opportunity to present their evidence as to their damages in complete detail, and no showing of any excusable neglect on their part or the part of their counsel for their failure to do .so.
The plaintiffs, in appealing, seem to have assumed that this Court, the jurisdiction of which is appellate, would, in effect, retry the issues which were tried in the court below and would substitute its judgment as to damages for that of the trial court. This is a misconception. It is not the function of this Court to retry this case and to pass upon questions of fact the determination of which depended upon the credibility of witnesses and the weight of evidence, or to substitute its judgment for that of the trier of the facts which had reached permissible conclusions. See Helvering v. Johnson, 8 Cir., 104 F.2d 140, 144, and cases cited, and Rule 52(a) of the Rules of Civil Procedure for the District Courts of the United States, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c.
The decree is affirmed as to all of the plaintiffs except Frithjof Selberg. As to him the decree is reversed and the case remanded to the lower court with directions to grant him a rehearing and to award him as damages such an amount as will fairly represent the diminution in the reasonable rental or use value of his farm during the years 1936 and 1937, caused by the existence of the nuisance complained of.