Court Opinion

ID: 9842859
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:19:55.22708+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:59.690346
License: Public Domain

RIVES, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The jury had a right to believe that the appellee was violently knocked down and washed some twenty-four feet along the deck into the chains around the ship. His skin was scratched and scraped on the deck, his shirt ripped open, his khaki pants torn on the seat, his head, shoulder, back, and ribs struck so hard that he thereafter made complaints about them to the Captain. Within a short time he became ill, and within about two weeks his illness was diagnosed as active tuberculosis. Before his injury in April 1953, the appellee had been examined repeatedly by Dr. Charbonnet throughout the latter part of 1952, and as late as February 1953, two months before the accident, and Dr. Charbonnet had found no chest difficulties and no reason to suspect tuberculosis.
In reaching their verdict the jurors were not confined strictly to the opinions of the physicians, indeed those opinions were not binding on them. The jury had the right, and was under the duty to take a broader view, and to consider all of the facts and circumstances disclosed by the evidence. Upon such a view, I would agree with the district court that there was substantial evidence to support the verdict of the jury. I, therefore, respectfully dissent.
Rehearing denied: RIVES, Circuit Judge, dissenting.