Court Opinion

ID: 9459183
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:12:32.432073+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:03.106870
License: Public Domain

WISDOM, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
I respectfully dissent.
The boxcar door did not happen to fall on Dugas as he was passing by. It fell off when he opened the door. Dugas opened the door by banging it against the doorstop. In these circumstances, the jury should be permitted to decide whether the door was in the control of Dugas, for purposes of applying or not applying the res ipsa loquitur doctrine. In effect, the trial judge took over the jury’s prerogative to decide the issue of control and directed a verdict on the application of res ipsa to this case.
I would reverse for a new trial.
I concur in the Court’s holding that the trial judge’s instructions on damages “could have confused the jury as to the correct standards it had to apply.”