Court Opinion

ID: 9448644
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:42:11.853391+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:30.877209
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I must disagree with my brothers’ holding as to the permissible scope of appellate review of possible errors in the trial court’s charge. Grace Line, Inc., contracted with third-party defendants to provide adequate winches to the stevedores unloading its ships, and there was evidence in the record that the winches actually furnished were defective. The clear import of the trial court’s charge was that provision of defective winches would not affect Grace Line’s right to recover over from the stevedoring companies for breach of their warranty of a workmanlike performance. The third-party defendants requested charges (1) that if the winches were defective the shipowner breached its contract and could not, therefore, recover over against the stevedoring companies and (2) that it could recover only if it proved that it had performed all conditions imposed upon it by the stevedoring contract. Timely exceptions were taken to these refusals to charge. By their requested charge and exceptions the third-party defendants clearly indicated to the trial judge that they did not accept his theory of their liability. My brothers concede *156that provision of defective winches would constitute a breach of contract; nevertheless they reject all claims of error in the charge.
Actually my brothers have admitted that the charge was erroneous. They cannot and do not say that no remedy is available for the shipowner’s breach. Thus they tacitly concede that the trial court’s charge, which admitted of no such remedy, was an erroneous statement of the law. They find no error and avoid determining the proper remedy not because the third-party defendants did not assert a proper legal theory — which they did- — but because their requested charge asked for what the court now determines was the wrong remedy! Because I believe this opinion to be a harsh and unnecessary restriction on our appellate jurisdiction, denying a fair appellate hearing to the third-party defendants, I must dissent.
The question of the effect of a shipowner’s breach of the stevedoring contract on its right to indemnification has never been decided in this circuit. Indeed there is only one case in which any court has considered this precise issue, and that is the Fourth Circuit in Calmar S. S. Corp. v. Nacirema Operating Co., 4 Cir., 266 F.2d 79. Thus to have requested the correct remedy for the shipowner’s breach the third-party defendants would have had to exercise superhuman prescience and have guessed which of several possible methods of resolving the problem this court would elect. Because the stevedoring companies chose the wrong method' — claiming breach would be a total bar to suit— the majority now holds that appellate consideration of other remedies is foreclosed.
This approach is inconsistent with Rule 46 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Under F.R. 46, an exception is sufficient if the party makes known to the court his objection to any action and the reasons for the objection. Since the function of the exception is notice to the court, the test of sufficiency of an exception is whether from the circumstances it was clear to the court that the objector disagreed with its action. 5 Moore’s Federal Practice 1J46.02, p. 1904 (2d Ed.1951). Here the third-party defendants made it abundantly clear that they disagreed with that aspect of the court’s charge which indicated that the shipowner’s failure to provide adequate winches did not affect its rights vis-a-vis the stevedores. And they also made it clear that the ground of this disagreement was that such a failure would be a breach of contract. So we should turn to see what remedy, if any, is available to the stevedores as a result of a breach of contract by the shipowner.
I agree with my brothers that failure to provide winches here would not constitute a material breach of contract, and thus would not excuse nonperformance by the stevedores. Such a breach, however, would give the stevedores a right of action for damages. Mowbray v. Merryweather, [1895] 2 Q.B. 640 (C. A.). Therefore the charge, read in the light of the denial of defendants’ request, was erroneous. For this reason we should reverse and order a new trial. At this trial the proper remedy for the third-party plaintiff’s breach could of course be raised by counterclaim. F.R. 13(a). The measure of damages in such a situation would be the foreseeable pecuniary loss caused by the breach, which in this case would be that portion of the damages paid to Pettus attributable to the shipowner’s wrongful provision of inadequate equipment. Cf. Mowbray v. Merryweather, supra, [1895], 2 Q.B. 649 (C.A.); Restatement, Contracts § 330 (1932); 5 Corbin on Contracts §§ 1006-1013 (1951).
Hence I would reverse and remand for a new trial on the question of the liability of the stevedoring companies to Grace Line, Inc.