Court Opinion

ID: 9449727
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:21:02.012113+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:57.735139
License: Public Domain

ROBINSON, District Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I am in full accord with and concur in the opinion of the majority in this case with the exception of that portion thereof which directs that the Trial Court enter judgment in favor of the landowner in the amount awarded by the Commission.
I am convinced that the case, at least on the record before -us, tested by either the rules announced and applied in O’Rieley v. Endicott-Johnson Corporation, 8 Cir., 297 F.2d 1; Gross v. Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland, 8 Cir., 302 F.2d 338, or Sanitary Farm Dairies v. Gammel, 8 Cir., 195 F.2d 106, or by the rules announced and applied in the cases in the Fourth, Fifth and Tenth Circuits, cited in the majority opinion, must be reversed and remanded.
The record here indicates that the able and experienced Trial Judge, after receiving the report of the Commissioners, and upon exceptions being taken thereto by the Appellee, concluded and found that the report submitted by the Commissioners was clearly erroneous and without more modified the said report by incx-easing the award. This was done without benefit of a transcript of the testimony taken before the Commis*67sioners, without holding a hearing or without receiving additional evidence. This, as the majority opinion holds, he may not do regardless of how convinced he may be that the award is inadequate.
In a somewhat analogous situation involving the report of a Conciliation Commissioner this Court, in an opinion by Judge Johnsen, (now Chief Judge), said:
“The district judge, where he chooses simply to review the record made before the conciliation commissioner, without himself receiving further evidence must give due regard to the greater opportunity which the conciliation commissioner has had to judge of the credibility of the witnesses. * * * He should not attempt, where he does not receive further evidence, to set aside a finding of the conciliation commissioner, unless it is based upon a material error in the proceedings or a mistaken view of the controlling law, or is unsupported by any substantial evidence, or is contrary to the clear weight of all the evidence. * * *” Dunsdon v. Federal Land Bank of St. Paul, 137 F.2d at page 86.
At this juncture, however, I am persuaded that the District Court’s power of review has not been exhausted in view of Rule 53(e) (II) Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which provides in part:
“ * * * The court after hearing may adopt the report or may modify it or may reject it in whole or in part or may receive further evidence or may recommit it with instructions.” (Emphasis supplied.)
Unlike this Court the Trial Court upon review of the report of the Commissioners is not limited to the bare record but may, among other things, hold a hearing or receive or require additional evidence in connection with said review.
Apposite here is the following in Dunsdon v. Federal Land Bank of St. Paul, supra, 137 F.2d at page 87:
“ * * * situations may exist where, in the interest of justice, he (District Judge) may soundly exer-' cise a discretion to receive or require additional evidence in connection with a review of a conciliation commissioner’s order, and determine from the entire record thus before him whether a correct result has been reached. * * * Whether oral evidence shall be received or required in the proceedings before him is, of course, a matter for his sound discretion and is not a matter of right to the parties.”
I think the foregoing reasoning is peculiarly applicable to the situation here present.
Accordingly, I would hold that the District Court still has authority to take further action in accordance with the principles enunciated in Equitable- Life Assur. Soc. of United States v. Carmody, 131 F.2d 318 (C.A. 8 1943) and Rait v. Federal Land Bank of St. Paul, 135 F.2d 447 (C.A. 8 1943). See also Dunsdon v. Federal Land Bank of St. Paul, supra.
To do otherwise, it would seem to me, is to foreclose the Trial Court from exer-cising a clear right to proceed further under the provisions of the above quoted rule, if it concludes in the exercise of a sound discretion that to do so would be in the interest and furtherance of justice. In the process it might explain and demonstrate, if it can, why in its opinion the report of the Commissioners’ was clearly erroneous.
Early termination of litigation is always desirable but it is not necessarily synonymous with justice.