Court Opinion

ID: 9452481
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:41:51.126329+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:13.900603
License: Public Domain

FREEDMAN, Circuit Judge,
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I believe that under the doctrine of Rogers v. Missouri Pacific R. Co., 352 U.S. 500, 77 S.Ct. 443, 1 L.Ed.2d 493 (1957), there was enough evidence of negligence, however meager it may be, to require submission to the jury of the question of liability on the first claim. The existence of a number of broken bands over a period of time was enough to permit the jury to conclude that defendant should either have required shippers to use stronger bands or should have inspected the bands which were used.
I therefore dissent from the direction that judgment be entered for defendant on the first claim.
I would, however, reverse the judgment of the court below and grant a new trial on the first claim because the trial judge unduly restricted the defendant’s cross-examination and evidence on damages to such an extent that it constituted reversible error. Since the general verdict for both claims makes it impossible to segregate the damages, I therefore concur in the reversal of the judgment of the court below and the award of a new trial on the second claim. For myself, I would award a new trial on both claims.