Court Opinion

ID: 9487794
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:26:34.81218+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:29.249986
License: Public Domain

KEARSE, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the judgment and in most of the majority opinion. I write separately to note my disagreement with the majority opinion’s suggestion that, by failing to object to the district court’s failure to submit the question of punitive damages to the jury, the plaintiff waived all right to have that claim decided. This is not a case in which a party has withdrawn or abandoned a claim. As the majority opinion notes, plaintiff may well have been “lulled” into failing to object to the submission of the punitive damages issue to the jury; and after the jury was discharged, plaintiff moved to have that issue decided in a new trial. A court should not assume that an expressly asserted and pursued claim has been withdrawn unless there is clear evidence of a knowing withdrawal. See, e.g., Frank v. Relin, 1 F.3d 1317, 1326-27 (2d Cir.1993), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 604, 126 L.Ed.2d 569 (1993). In my view, for the reasons stated below, plaintiff was entitled to have the punitive damages issue decided by the court, although in the circumstances of this case a remand for such a decision is not necessary.
Although the questions submitted to the jury were denominated interrogatories, I disagree with the majority’s view that they were submitted pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 49(b). That Rule governs interrogatories that are submitted along with instructions for the jury to return a general verdict. See generally Lavoie v. Pacific Press & Shear Co., 975 F.2d 48, 52-53 (2d Cir.1992). Here, the jury was asked three questions in all. Two were fact questions, i.e., (1) whether either or both of the defendants conducted an unreasonable search of Caruso’s residence, and (2) if so, whether that conduct was a proximate cause of Caruso’s injury. These two questions enabled a legal conclusion as to liability, but the jury was not asked for such a conclusion. The third question, how much in compensatory or nominal damages the jury awarded, did not call for a “general” verdict, except perhaps as to the quantification of those damages. I do not view either the third question alone or the interrogatories as a group to call for a general verdict even on the request for compensatory damages, much less on plaintiffs request for punitive damages or on her claim as a whole.
Rather, I regard the questions as having been submitted to the jury in accordance with Rule 49(a). The fact that they were called “Interrogatories,” a term used in Rule 49(b) but not 49(a), is not determinative, for Rule 49(a) is not rigid. It provides that “the court may submit to the jury written questions susceptible of categorical or other brief answer or may submit written forms of the several special findings which might properly be made under the pleadings and evidence; or it may use such other method of submitting the issues and requiring the written findings thereon as it deems most appropriate.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 49(a) (emphasis added). Since the court used an appropriate method of submitting the issues by specific questions but did not ask for a general verdict, I think Rule 49(a) applies.
When (a) the jury is not asked to return a general'verdict but is merely asked to answer interrogatories, (b) a question essential to the adjudication of the claim is not included in the interrogatories, and (c) the parties do not urge the court prior to discharging the jury to submit that question to the jury, the court itself must answer the question. See, e.g., Fed.R.Civ.P. 49(a); Cullen v. Mar-*34giotta, 811 F.2d 698, 731 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 483 U.S. 1021, 107 S.Ct. 3266, 97 L.Ed.2d 764 (1987). If the court does not make an explicit finding on the question not put to the jury, the court is deemed to have made a finding consistent with the judgment entered on the special verdict form, Fed. R.Civ.P. 49(a), unless this would be inappropriate, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 1 (Rules should be construed in manner designed “to secure the just ... determination of every action”); Cullen v. Margiotta, 811 F.2d at 731. Since, as the majority discusses, plaintiff here did not timely ask the court to put the question of punitive damages to the jury, I believe the court itself should have decided that question in accordance with Rule 49(a).
Even if the submission to a jury of questions that plainly do not cover all aspects of the plaintiffs claim could be deemed to call for a “general verdict,” making part (b) of Rule 49 applicable, I would not interpret Rule 49(b) to require that we find a waiver of an issue the plaintiff clearly did not mean to abandon. Part (b) of the Rule is silent as to the course to be followed where a “general verdict” has been requested with respect to only a specific part of the plaintiffs claim. In order to interpret this silence in a way that would achieve a just result here, I would not conclude that the court’s failure to ask the jury about part of the claim that plaintiff clearly did not wish to abandon results in abandonment. I would conclude instead that the gap between the scope of plaintiffs claim and the scope of the jury’s responses should be filled in accordance with the procedures prescribed in part (a) of the Rule.
Under Rule 49(a), where the trial judge has been silent on the undecided question or has indicated only that it could not decide the omitted question in favor of the plaintiff as a matter of law, we have remanded for the court to decide the issue. See Cullen v. Margiotta, 811 F.2d at 731-32. In the present case, however, the trial court plainly indicated its view at the conclusion of the evidence that plaintiff was not entitled to punitive damages: “I do not, myself, regard this as a punitive damages case.... ” (Trial Transcript, November 18, 1993, at 9.) Indeed, the court stated that if there were a jury verdict awarding plaintiff punitive damages, the court would probably set that verdict aside. Id.
In light of these statements, we should deem the trial court to have decided the punitive damages issue in accordance with Rule 49(a) and to have ruled against plaintiff. Accordingly, no remand is required, and I agree with the majority that the judgment should be affirmed.