Court Opinion

ID: 9480342
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:45:08.791659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:37.404516
License: Public Domain

ALARCON, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment:
I concur in the conclusion reached by the majority insofar as it affirms the judgment of the district court in favor of the defendant. I write separately because, unlike my colleagues, I would not reach the merits of this appeal.
Appellant did not object to a bench trial in the district court. A majority of the active judges of this court voted to take this case en banc to determine whether the opinion in Palmer v. United States, 652 F.2d 893 (9th Cir.1981), was correctly decided. In Palmer, the majority reversed the judgment on the ground that the plaintiff was denied his right to a trial by jury notwithstanding the fact that he did not object to a bench trial. Id. at 896.
In his dissent in Palmer, Judge Chambers concluded that the question whether the appellant was entitled to a trial by jury need not be considered because Fisher had participated in a non-jury trial without objection. Palmer, 652 F.2d at 897 (Chambers, J., dissenting). Judge Chambers reasoned that permitting a party to raise this issue for the first time on appeal would “ambush [the] trial judge.” Id. I would overrule Palmer and adopt Judge Chambers’ analysis concerning the effect of the failure to preserve an issue for appeal without deciding whether participation in a bench trial without objection constitutes waiver of a timely jury demand.
In a well-reasoned opinion, the Seventh Circuit in Lovelace v. Dall, 820 F.2d 223 (7th Cir.1987) (per curiam), determined that strong policies militate against permitting a party in a civil proceeding to raise the question whether he was entitled to a trial by jury for the first time on appeal. Id. at 228. The court explained that “it is unfair to permit a party to have a trial, discover it has lost, and then raise the jury issue because it is unsatisfied with the result of the trial.” Id.
The majority has cited several cases from other circuits that have determined that a jury demand under Rule 39(a) can be waived by mere acquiescence in a bench trial. None of the cases cited by the majority, except Lovelace v. Dall, discuss the question whether this issue may be raised for the first time on appeal under applicable circuit law. As discussed above, in Lovelace one of the bases for affirming the judgment was that no objection had been made in the trial court. 820 F.2d at 228. Indeed, three of the four cases decided after Palmer that are included in the majority’s string citation rely upon or quote Judge Chambers’ “ambush” theory. Royal Am. Managers, Inc. v. IRC Holding Corp., 885 F.2d 1011, 1018 (2d Cir.1989); Lovelace v. Dall, 820 F.2d at 228; United States v. 1966 Beechcraft Aircraft Model King Air, 777 F.2d 947, 951 (4th Cir.1985).
Long ago, we adopted the rule in this circuit that an issue may not be raised for the first time on appeal. In Westinghouse Elec. Corp. v. Weigel, 426 F.2d 1356 (9th Cir.1970) (per curiam), we articulated this principle in the following passage: “The rule generally applied on appeal is that an assertion of error below will not be entertained where the issue was not raised in the lower court and the error, assuming it occurred, might have been avoided if the issue had been raised. The importance of the rule to the practical administration of the judicial system is obvious, and we adhere to it here.” Id. at 1357.
As noted by the majority, the failure of the district court to honor White’s request for a jury trial was obvious to the appellant and his lawyer throughout the two-day trial of this matter. At no time, however, did White bring his prior jury demand to the attention of the trial judge. Thus, the trial judge was not given the opportunity to correct an error known to the appellant. “A party will not be allowed to speculate with the court by letting error go unremarked and then seek a new trial on the basis of the error if the outcome of the ease is unfavorable to him.” 9 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2472, at 455 (1971).
*705We pointed out the sound reasons that bar “sandbagging” trial judges over 27 years ago: “It is sound policy to require that all claims be presented to the trial court, and not raised for the first time on appeal.... This requirement sets the scope of the lawsuit, thereby preventing piecemeal litigation and consequent waste of the time of both trial and appellate courts. It assures that the opposing party will know the claims he must meet. It gives the appellate court the benefit of the district court’s wisdom, and it prevents a litigant from asserting before this Court a claim which he deliberately chose, for reasons of strategy, not to assert below.” Partenweederei, MS Belgrano v. Weigel, 313 F.2d 423, 425 (9th Cir.1962) (per cu-riam) (emphasis added).
The majority has rejected appellee’s argument that, under the law of this circuit, an issue may not be raised for the first time on appeal in a footnote of its opinion. Majority Opinion at 700 n. 4. The majority has referred us to United States v. Gabriel, 625 F.2d 830 (9th Cir.1980), to support its determination to reach out and decide the merits of the jury trial issue. Gabriel concerned a failure to raise a legal issue — whether government stops were fixed checkpoint stops — at trial. We chose to consider the issue because it was purely legal and the record had been fully developed. Id. at 832. A failure to raise a legal theory at trial, however, is quite different from a failure to object to an obvious procedural error. See In re Southland Supply, Inc., 657 F.2d 1076, 1079 (9th Cir.1981) (we will not review an objection not raised below to a trial procedure “unless necessary to prevent manifest injustice.”). White has not demonstrated, nor does the majority suggest, that manifest injustice will flow from an affirmance because of White’s failure to object.
Except for the Palmer decision, which the majority has today overruled, my research has not disclosed any case in which this court has permitted an appellant to raise an issue on appeal where he remained silent, and failed to object, after becoming aware that the trial court had inadvertently committed error in the way it conducted the trial. I would not encourage appeals from litigants who deliberately await the outcome of trial before claiming error for the first time in this court.
I recognize that, in this case, appellant’s ambush of the trial court has proved unsuccessful. My concern is for the unfortunate precedent the majority has created. I would not permit an appellant to remain silent, in the face of clear error, awaiting the judgment of the court, before raising the issue on appeal. I would not waste precious judicial resources in considering a claim of error that could have been remedied below had appellant not elected to ambush the trial court.