Court Opinion

ID: 9467799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:57:09.637116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:32.382142
License: Public Domain

MANSFIELD, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part):
I concur in the majority’s holding that the plaintiff failed to establish (1) negligence on the part of Dr. Green and St. Luke’s in failing properly to supervise Hegger’s activities in the hospital by preventing him from smoking or climbing stairs and in failing to maintain adequate nursing observation, or (2) that the alleged negligence was the proximate cause of Hegger’s death. I also agree that the award of $25,000 for loss of consortium must be reversed in the light of Liff v. Schildkrout, 49 N.Y.2d 622, 427 N.Y.S.2d 746, 404 N.E.2d 1288 (1980), and that the defendants’ contributory negligence claim must fail for the reasons stated by the majority. However, I believe that the majority’s decision to award against Dr. Green the full amount of the judgment, $501,984 (after deduction of the $25,000 award for loss of consortium) is a denial of substantial justice and an abuse of discretion, amounting to the assumption by this court of the role of trier of the fact and substitution of its views for those of the jury.
In my view the majority’s error lies in its assumption that the jury’s finding of liability against Dr. Green was based on claims other than those found by us to have been unsustained. If the jury had based its verdict against Dr. Green on the claims that he failed to place Hegger under electronic monitoring and failed to operate promptly, I would have no quarrel with the result reached by my brothers, even though the jury’s apportionment of 75% of the award against the hospital and 25% against Dr. Green raises a serious doubt as to whether, if the jury had been precluded from finding the hospital liable, it would have awarded such a substantial amount against Dr. Green.
For present purposes, however, the important point is that the jury based its verdict on impermissible considerations, namely, that Hegger died because of failure on the part of Dr. Green to take more steps to insure that Hegger would not smoke or walk upstairs. By finding the hospital 75% negligent, Dr. Green 25% negligent, and Hegger 27% contributorily negligent, the jury appears in all probability to have rejected plaintiff’s claim that Hegger died because of Dr. Green’s failure to place him on electronic monitoring and to have based its verdict on the claims based on his smoking and walking upstairs. If the jury had based its award against Dr. Green on claims based on lack of electronic monitoring or delay in operating it would not have decreased its award against Green by 27%, since Hegger could not possibly have been contributorily negligent with respect to these claims. Moreover, as to these claims it could not properly have apportioned liability as between Dr. Green and the hospital, since these claims were not (and could not properly be) asserted against the hospital. Under the circumstances, the proper and equitable course is to reverse the judgment against Dr. Green and remand the case against him for a new trial limited to the claims that he failed to operate promptly and to place Hegger under electronic monitoring.
The majority’s decision to increase the verdict against Dr. Green from $125,496 (before deducting 27% for Hegger’s contributory negligence) to $501,984 (after deducting the $25,000 improperly awarded for loss of consortium) is not mandated by the authorities relied upon by it. The common law rule, which treated a judgment against joint tortfeasors as an entirety that must be affirmed or reversed as to all parties, Sheldon v. Quinlen, 5 Hill (N.Y.) 441 (1843); Bamberg v. International R. Co., 121 App. Div. 1, 105 N.Y.S. 621 (1907); Annotation, Grant of New Trial, or Reversal of Judgment on Appeal as to One Joint Tort-feasor, *32143 A.L.R. 7, 8-9 (1943), including non-appealing defendants, Comment, Judgments Against Joint Tortfeasors — Problems Arising on Appeal by Only One Defendant, 31 Mo.L.Rev. 141, 142 (1962), would mandate reversal of the judgment against Dr. Green. Although that rule has been modified to the extent of permitting an appellate court to affirm as to a defendant properly held liable despite a reversal as to a co-defendant, Chiarello Bros. Co. v. Pederson, 242 F. 482, 484 (2d Cir. 1917), see also Dollar S.S. Lines v. Merz, 68 F.2d 594, 595 (9th Cir. 1934), the court may, where it would be in the interest of “substantial justice,” reverse a joint judgment in its entirety. Washington Gas Light Co. v. Lansden, 172 U.S. 534, 555, 19 S.Ct. 296, 304, 43 L.Ed. 543 (1899); Constitution Publishing Co. v. Dale, 164 F.2d 210, 213 (5th Cir. 1947); 6A J. Moore, Federal Practice Par. 59.06 at 59-88 (2d ed. 1980). For the reasons stated above, a reversal of the judgment against Dr. Green and remand for trial of the validly stated claims against him would clearly be in the interest of substantial justice.
The majority circumvents this eminently equitable course on the ground that Dr. Green did not take a formal appeal. With this holding I must disagree. The fact that a judgment against a non-appealing party will be reversed where the reversal of judgment against a co-defendant “wipes out all basis for recovery” against him does not preclude us from entering such a reversal where it would be in the interest of substantial justice. None of the cases cited by the majority would bar such a reversal. Nor have I found any authority holding that, where reversal of a judgment against an appealing defendant would increase or inequitably affect the liability of a non-appealing party, the court may not in its sound discretion reverse the judgment against the latter. On the contrary, the very decisions relied upon by the majority support a reversal here as to Dr. Green. For instance, in In re Barnett, 124 F.2d 1005 (2d Cir. 1942), relied on by Judge Mes-kill, the court reversed the judgment as to the non-appealing defendant, stating:
“As previously observed, the other parties adversely affected by the lower court’s order did not pray an appeal. Had they done so, it is clear, from our opinion, that we would have held the order erroneous as to them. We are clear that we have the power to order a reversal as to them even though they did not appeal, and that we should do so under the circumstances here disclosed... . Hence complete reversal is the only proper way to avoid unnecessary complications and ambiguity.” In re Barnett, 124 F.2d 1005, 1008-09 (2d Cir. 1942).
In Kicklighter v. Nails by Jannee, Inc., 616 F.2d 734, 742-45 (5th Cir. 1980), a reversal of a judgment against a third-party defendant was held to inure to the benefit of a non-appealing defendant/third-party plaintiff, permitting all parties to participate in a new trial, on the ground that “an appeal by one defendant [may] operate for the benefit of another defendant,” citing In re Barnett, supra, and Maryland Casualty Co. v. City of South Norwalk, 54 F.2d 1032 (4th Cir. 1932). In Statella v. Robert Chuckrow Construction Co., 28 A.D.2d 669, 281 N.Y.S.2d 215 (1st Dept. 1967), the third case relied upon by the majority, a judgment against multiple tortfeasors was reversed as to a non-appealing defendant, the court stating:
“Although the defendant Chuckrow did not appeal from the judgment rendered against it in favor of plaintiff, Chuckrow is here on the appeals concerning the determination of its cross complaints and we conclude that the appeals of the codefendants bringing up for review on the merits the question of excessiveness of the verdicts inure also to the benefit of Chuckrow. The verdicts and judgment, insofar as they fix the amounts of recoveries, are in joint form against the several defendants. They occupy the same position and have a common standing with respect to the quantum of plaintiff’s recovery. The common-law rule was that verdict or judgment against several tortfeasors might not be reversed as to some and enforced as to others, and that a new trial might not be granted as to some and *33denied as to others. The judgment was regarded as an entirety which must be affirmed or reversed on appeal as to all or as to none. Today it is quite generally held that a judgment against multiple tort-feasors may be reversed as to one such defendant without affecting the judgments as to others. In the application of the modern rule, nevertheless, courts will not enter such a partial reversal where substantial justice requires a reversal as to all defendants, as where it appears there is a right to contribution or indemnity among the codefendants (Rome Cable Corp. v. Tanney, 21 A.D.2d 342, [250 N.Y.S.2d 304]; Greenberg v. Stanley, 30 N.J. 485, 504-505, [153 A.2d 833]; Ferry v. Settle, 6 N.J. 262, 265-266, [78 A.2d 264]; 5 Am.Jur.2d, Appeal and Error, §§ 949, 950, 951; CPLR 5522.) Fundamental justice requires, moreover, that judicial discretion be exercised and a new trial ordered as to all defendants unless plaintiff stipulates to reduce the award as to all defendants.” Statella v. Robert Chuckrow Construction Co., 28 A.D.2d 669, 670, 281 N.Y.S.2d 215 (1st Dept. 1967) (emphasis supplied).
Professor Moore has noted, “the courts of appeals have treated the position of nonparticipants in an appeal on a case to case basis and have not read Rule 3 to limit the jurisdiction to reverse or modify a judgment properly brought before it.” 9 Moore’s Federal Practice Par. 204.11[5], at 4-61 (emphasis in original). I believe this principle should govern here.
Dr. Green’s failure to take an appeal is understandable. Both he and the plaintiff were content with the jury’s limitation of Dr. Green’s liability to 25%. The plaintiff appealed only the 27% deduction based on the jury’s finding of contributory negligence. Dr. Green apparently continues to be willing to abide by the 25% verdict even after disallowance of the 27% erroneously deducted by reason of the plaintiff’s alleged contributory negligence. He therefore proceeded on the basis that this would be his maximum exposure. The majority, in reversing the judgment against his co-defendant (the hospital), does not merely leave untouched the scope of his liability but increases it by 75%. Under these circumstances, to hold him liable for the full 100%, which was based on impermissible grounds, strikes me as unconscionably harsh. Under the circumstances we should exercise our discretionary power as a matter of fundamental justice to reverse the judgment as to him and remand the validly stated individual claims against him for a new trial, unaffected by the unsustained claims upon which the jury held him liable.