Court Opinion

ID: 9650522
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:42:00.996873+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:22.926623
License: Public Domain

HUTCHESON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The case is, I think, a very simple one, and it may be simply disposed of. Plaintiff, in his original action for damages, set out that he had been damaged in the sum of $20,000 itemized as follows: “Pain and suffering, $1,0,000; loss of past earnings, $45.00; loss of future earnings, $9,955.00.” The conclusion of the original petition declared: Petitioner alleges that this action is brought pursuant to Section 33 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, 46 U.S.» C.A. § 688, and petitioner hereby elects to maintain this action for damages at law with the right of a trial by jury, and to take advantage of all statutes of the United States, modifying or extending the common law rights or remedy, in cases of personal injury to railway employees. The prayer was that petitioner have judgment in the full amount of $20,000, for all costs and disbursements, and for all general and equitable relief. Upon this petition so drawn, plaintiff was entitled to recover his full damages including his medical, surgical, and other disbursements, in other words, cure.
In the charge to the jury, the court among other things said: “An award in damages is not a punishment for the injury inflicted, but is compensation therefor, and should be commensurate therewith, and the facts with reference to said injury, treatment, et cetera, are in evidence.”
The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff for $2,000. This verdict in law and in fact, included compensation for loss of wages, pain and suffering, disbursements and expenses for treatment, and et cetera. Baltimore Steamship Company v. Phillips, 274 U.S. 316, 47 S.Ct. 600, 71 L.Ed. 1069.
It is quite plain, therefore, that when the same plaintiff sues to again recover for keep $1,092, and for disbursements for medical and other expenses, $52 for a leather jacket, and $100 for treatment, he is in fact seeking a double recovery for the same injury, and this he may not do. Baltimore S. S. Co. v. Phillips, supra; Haugen v. Oceanic Fisheries Company, D.C., 21 F.Supp. 572; Owens v. Hammond Lumber Co., D.C., 8 F.Supp. 392; c/f Seely v. New York, 2 Cir., 24 F.2d 412.
The judgment denying recovery was right and should be affirmed. I dissent from the judgment of reversal,