Court Opinion

ID: 9453229
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:07:30.908937+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:34.452928
License: Public Domain

GERALD McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The defendant’s answer specifically pleaded the affirmative defense of plaintiff’s contributory negligence. The defense attorney opened to the jury inter alia on that affirmative defense. He stated that it was the main defense contention that the railroad had not been negligent with respect to plaintiff and his accident and then said “but if there were any negligence of the railroad, Mr. Paluch was right with them on that point.” Before us that statement is described by appellant as “The innuendo and suggestion of the defendant under the allegation of contributory negligence was an attempt to impute the negligence of the foreman Brickman to the plain*1001tiff, and also that plaintiff in carrying out the orders of Brickman, who created the situation which directly and proximately caused the accident, assumed the risk.” (Emphasis supplied).
It is undenied that the foreman and the crew, including plaintiff, were on the ground of the accident the day before it occurred. It is also undenied that the foreman at that time applied the railroad testing methods to the particular pole later involved. The foreman had been using those methods for twenty-one years. They consisted of pushing the pole to ascertain movement if any and going down by the ground and jabbing his knife into the pole “and you could tell whether it was rotted or not.” According to the foreman and undenied, the pole had a shorter pole snubbed snugly to it for added strength. Plaintiff and the other members of the party were to the east of the pole when the foreman made his tests. From the testimony he was in full view of those men. Plaintiff testified that he did not see the foreman testing the pole. He also said that he looked at the pole and that “To me it looked good, from the outside it looked good.” The foreman, the day of the accident, looked the pole over and it looked the same as the day before. He was asked if there had been any conversation about the pole between the plaintiff and himself before the accident. He answered, “Yes, once he asked me if I thought it was safe, and I said yes.” (Emphasis supplied).
The trial judge in his charge stated the plaintiff’s claim, then said:
“The defendant, answering, states, of course, that it was not guilty of any negligence which was a proximate cause or in any way contributed to the happening of the accident, and that if you should find that it was, that the plaintiff himself was guilty of negligence which also helped to bring about the accident.
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“The defendant, when he denies negligence, and says the plaintiff was contributorily negligent, has the burden of proving this contributory negligence of the plaintiff. Proof must be also by a fair preponderance of the evidence.
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“Contributory negligence is the fault on the part of the person injured which contributed in some degree to the negligence of another and helps bring about the injury.”
In discussing the determining factors for the jury the judge soundly charged on negligence and contributory negligence. On the question of damages he included the rule, in the event of finding the railroad negligent and contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff, of diminishing the amount awarded the latter.
After the conclusion of the charge the judge at side-bar asked counsel for both sides “Any exceptions?” Each attorney answered “No, sir.”
Following the verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff there was a motion for a new trial by plaintiff. At the hearing thereon the following transpired :
“Mr. Tyne: Your Honor, this is an application or motion to set aside the verdict of the Jury which was rendered on December 1, 1966, in favor of the plaintiff for $6000 on the ground that the verdict is unconscionable and grossly inadequate.
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Mr. Tyne: If your Honor please, may I be heard on that, sir? I don’t propose to impose on your Honor because I know your Honor has a picture of this case in mind, but under your Honor’s charge, you did charge the subject of negligence and contributory negligence, and you instructed the Jury on both questions and instructed them that if they should find contributory negligence, they should assess the percentage in that regard.
The Jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff on the basis of negligence alone, and in so doing, *1002found there was no contributory negligence.
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Your Honor instructed them on the question of contributory negligence, but in so doing instructed them to assess any percentage of contributory negligence they might have found. When they came in with the verdict in favor of the plaintiff, they found negligence; they did not find any contributory negligence whatsoever.
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The Court: The verdict was for $6000, and that may have meant that they agreed to a larger sum but reduced it by reason of the contributory negligence of the plaintiff. There is no way in which the Jury considering damages alone, would be able to assess the damages unless they knew about the question of contributory negligence.
Mr. Tyne: They knew that, sir, and I think the question that was presented to your Honor on the test that was supposed to have been given by Mr. Brickman, the foreman employed by the defendant, at the time or prior to, a day prior to the accident, and on which your Honor charged them that the standard testified to may be considered by the Jury, and they may consider whether or not it is reasonable or unreasonable.
The Jury came in and presented a question to the Court, which the Court answered, and in so doing, that question, and the verdict given by the Jury, indicates to me, at least, very clearly that the Jury considered all questions of negligence and contributory negligence and found that the defendant was negligent, and that there was no contributory negligence.
The Court: How did you arrive at that conclusion?
Mr. Tyne: Because they said nothing about contributory negligence, and didn’t assess the damage. In this case, as your Honor well knows, the law of comparative negligence applies, if they found any contributory negligence at all.
The Court: They returned a verdict of $6000 in accordance with the instructions, which said that if there was any contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff, that they would take that into consideration and reduce the total sum of damages by the amount in proportion to the contribution of negligence on the part of the plaintiff.
There would be no way in which the Jury sitting on the question of damages alone would be able to find that out. There is no obligation on the Jury to say, ‘We find $6000 because we find a degree of negligence is on the part of the plaintiff.’
Mr. Tyne: On the basis of the evidence alone, sir, the evidence as presented to the Jury, looking at it coldly and from an impartial point of view, the evidence presented on the part of the plaintiff is overwhelming; that’s my opinion. I think that’s the factual situation that the Jury was called upon to meet, and decide.
The Court: I don’t know what was in the Jury’s mind.
Mr. Tyne: Of course, I know that the Jury has been — a Jury is unpredictable, but when you look at the facts—
The Court: I am not looking at the facts. The Jury is looking at the facts.
Mr. Tyne: That’s so, but as of now, I think that your Honor should look at the facts and decide whether or not there was anything in this factual complex that even suggested contributory negligence.
The Court: Unless you want me to rule as a matter of law that there was no contributory negligence on the part *1003of the plaintiff, and I can’t do that, how are you going to find out what the Jury found factually?
Mr. Tyne: On the basis of the uncontradicted evidence. This man here was a new man—
The Court: I know all about the facts of it, but the question of fact is for the Jury to determine, not for the Court, and there is no question of law presented to the Court on the question of contributory negligence.
Mr. Tyne: Your Honor fully charged them on all of the elements of negligence and the elements of damage, and then they disregarded the Court’s charge.
The Court: No, I couldn’t say that they did.” (Emphasis supplied).
As is self evident from the above, plaintiff’s attorney thoroughly agreed with the submission of the case to the jury by the trial judge, including the issue of plaintiff’s contributory negligence. As is also self evident there was no request directly or indirectly even then for a finding as a matter of law that there was no contributory negligence. The attorney time and again stressed that there was no complaint about the way he thought the jury had passed upon that problem. He was entirely concerned with what he described as the outrageously small sum awarded.
On this appeal itself there is not one word from appellant that the contributory negligence charge should not have been given the jury or that it had not been correctly stated. As has been said, according to plaintiff’s expressed theory the jury weighed the question and found that plaintiff had not been contributorily negligent. Plaintiff in this court, as on his motion for a new trial, simply asserts that he did not receive as large a verdict as he thinks he should have had. The definitive answer to the damage phase of the suit is that the verdict was not so inadequate as to shock the conscience of the trial judge who had seen the damage witnesses and heard their testimony.
I find no support in the record for the current conception of the trial. Contributory negligence was pleaded; was noted in the defense opening address. The testimony as to plaintiff’s acts and conduct could have been fairly interpreted as evidencing fault on his part. Despite plaintiff’s denial the jury might well have found that he did see the foreman make his tests and did nothing about this except to make one casual inquiry of the foreman, asking the latter if he thought it was safe and receiving the answer “Yes”.
Indeed, as conceded, it is only on oral argument of this appeal that for the first time plaintiff seems to claim that the defendant offered no proof, formally so labeled, of plaintiff’s contributory negligence and therefore that defense, prominent in the case from the moment answer was filed, should not be considered by this appellate court.
We too, as well as the district court, are judges of cases, not of “causes”.1 We are contained by the record. From the trial evidence therein, every last bit of pleadings and the constantly repeated trial pattern, contributory negligence was rightfully in this litigation from its beginning, through its presentation to the jury and including our consideration of the appeal. Our task is not the upholding of a technical rule. There was no error fundamental or otherwise by the trial judge. It seems to me that in the interest of not unwarrantably invading the true district court function, the judgment should be affirmed.

. See Mr. Justice Harlan’s article on Mr. Justice Black, H.L.B.. V. 81,1, p. 3.