Court Opinion

ID: 9464891
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:45:45.235999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:52.292098
License: Public Domain

ALVIN B. RUBIN, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
While I agree with most of the majority opinion, I respectfully dissent in two particulars:
A.
For reasons set forth in St. Marie v. Southland Mobile Homes, Inc., E.D.La.1974, 376 F.Supp. 996, I do not think that Congress, in the Truth-in-Lending statute, intended to exact a double penalty when a husband and wife enter into a single transaction. Like the majority, I am bound by the later formulation of the law of the circuit to the contrary. Davis v. United Companies Mortgage and Investment of Gretna, Inc., 5 Cir. 1977, 551 F.2d 971, 972-73. However, I do not think that an Alabama court, unfettered by a federal circuit decision, would reach the same conclusion in interpreting its own statute, or that it would consider Herby and Lucille Berryhill separate debtors for the purposes of that statute, particularly when the consequent multiplication of the Alabama penalty would ensue. Candor, and, perhaps, vanity, compel me, as the author of St. Marie, to say that I think, under the circumstances, its logic would be more compelling to the Alabama court.
B.
I would not permit Rich Plan, represented by able counsel throughout, to urge the alleged error in interpreting the Alabama statute for the first time in this court. Mere citation of a statute (upon which the plaintiffs themselves relied) no more suffices to alert a court to an argument based on a technical interpretation of one of the clauses of that act than reference to a library suffices as a citation to one of its books.
The pleadings of counsel, who practice a learned profession, do not command the leniency of interpretation we accord the pro se, unlearned petitioner. The primary function of this court is to review doctrines for legal correctness and to state and apply the rule of law for the guidance of the *1102public, lawyers, litigants and trial courts. It is our related duty to assure justice in a particular case, but only when, for example, the trial court’s findings are clearly erroneous, or a jury verdict lacks support in substantial evidence. It is not our duty, nor does it well serve the administration of justice, for us to consider issues not properly raised in the trial court in order to reach the “correct result.” See Wright, The Doubtful Omniscience of Appellate Courts, 41 Minn.L.Rev. 751 (1957).
C.
Application of these different views cuts both ways. The first would reduce the recovery allowed by my brethren; the second would increase it. The plaintiffs would reap an even more bountiful harvest than my colleagues permit. This does not cause me undue concern. In blunter terms, I view the so-called Food and Freezer Agreement as a sham to exact unconscionable charges from the credit buyer, who is the only one who ever pays them. We need not shrink from the consequences the defendant’s overreaching has brought on itself.