Court Opinion

ID: 9445299
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:24:42.867645+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:12.104962
License: Public Domain

LUMBARD, Circuit Judge
(concurring as to Groves and dissenting as to Pennsylvania Railroad Co.).
I concur in the opinion of the majority insofar as it relates to the appeal by Groves. I am constrained to dissent, however, from that portion of the opinion which reverses the judgment against the Pennsylvania Railroad.
My brothers concede that there is sufficient evidence in the record to justify a jury finding that mure adequate warning devices at the crossing might have forestalled the accident. They find error, however, in that portion of the charge where Judge Bicks instructed the jury as follows:
“In determining this issue, you may consider whether it was reasonably safe, under all the circumstances, for the defendant Pennsylvania to specify a 50 miles per hour speed limit if the train could not stop at Longs Road crossing, if necessary, within the visibility of its operator.” (Emphasis supplied.)
My disagreement with the majority is highlighted by Judge CLARK’S statement that “The clear import of this statement is that the railroad had a duty to operate its trains at such speeds that they could be stopped within the range of their operators’ vision.” To me Judge Bicks’ language taken in its context does not have that meaning. It means only that the railroad may under some circumstances have a duty to operate its trains at such speeds that they can be stopped within the range of their operators’ vision. It seems to me that this proposition is unexceptionable. If the railroad fails to provide devices at the crossing which will give adequate warning of approaching trains, then it may well have a duty to slow its trains to the point where they can be stopped before reaching the crossing. It seems to me that this is all that Judge Bicks was saying and that it is all that the jury could have understood him to mean.1
*769Just a few paragraphs before the language to which the majority objects, Judge Bicks had given the jury a comprehensive list of the factors to be considered in determining whether Pennsylvania was negligent, including the hazards involved, the speed at which the locomotive was to operate, the character of the traffic to be expected at the crossing, the engineer’s visibility approaching the crossing, and a motorist’s visibility approaching the track. That paragraph concluded with the following language:
“In addition you are to consider in conjunction with the speed at which the train is directed to be operated by the railroad, the precautions taken by it at Longs Road grade crossing to give advance warning of the approach of a train.” (Emphasis supplied.)
He then said:
“As I have already told you, the law leaves the determination of the speed at which a train may be run to the railroad company. However, the law imposes a further duty upon the railroad company to exercise such care at grade crossings as to prevent accidents at these points by installing devices which will provide for such advance warning of the approach of a train as the circumstances reasonably require.
“Having given due consideration to all these various factors and having given such weight to each or any of them as you believe they are entitled, it will be for you to say whether the defendant Pennsylvania has complied with its duty toward the plaintiff of exercising reasonable care and providing him with a reasonably safe place to work.”
When Judge Bicks then continued With the language now complained of, I think it must have been clear to the jury that his meaning was that Pennsylvania had a duty to make the crossing reasonably safe either by providing adequate warning devices or by operating its trains slowly enough to stop before reaching the crossing. He did not instruct them that they might find that the railroad must operate its trains slowly enough to stop within the visibility of the engineer in all situations, including those where adequate warning devices are provided.
Pennsylvania’s counsel, in taking exception to Judge Bicks’ charge, made no argument that undue emphasis had been placed on the element of the train speed or that it had been improperly singled out as a separate ground of negligence. He argued rather that the train speed was not an element of negligence at all and his requested instruction was to that effect. But it seems to me quite clear that the adequacy of the signals could not properly be considered apart from the speed of the trains and that Judge Bicks was therefore justified in refusing Pennsylvania’s request and in instructing the jury that both of these factors should be considered in determining whether the railroad was negligent.
Since Judge Bicks properly enunciated the principles upon which the jury’s decision was to rest, I think there is no reason to speculate that they might have accepted one version of the facts rather than another and applied the principle in a situation where it was not properly applicable. Nor do I think that the trial judge was bound to give an additional instruction that if the crane had been stalled for some time the inadequacy of the signals could not be a proximate cause of the accident. This is what the majority seems to require. But counsel for Pennsylvania neither requested nor suggested such an instruction, nor was any exception taken to the instruction on causation which Judge Bicks gave. Thus under Rule 51, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C., we should not now consider objections to that portion of the charge. For us to permit a fine-tooth combing of the charge to find error which was not clearly indicated at the required time seems to me to do violence to the spirit of the rule and the reasons which led to its adoption.
*770The issues in this case were relatively simple and in view of the careful and comprehensive charge which Judge Bicks gave I think it is unrealistic to suggest that the jury did not understand them. That the jury would have reached a different result had the charge of the judge been more detailed and specific on the point which troubles my brothers seems to me highly doubtful. Indeed to labor this point, as the majority would have the trial judge do, might well give it undue emphasis and create confusion where none already exists. Such questions of emphasis and detail should be left to the sound discretion of the district judges, especially where the parties suggest nothing which is any better than the language used.
This accident occurred on May 19, 1950. Five years later the trial took place from April 19 to May 6, 1955. Now after six years my brothers reverse and require a retrial because the district judge should have put a few more words on the other side of the scales. I must say that I think we usurp the function of the District Court and do small service to the sensible and orderly disposition of its civil business to reverse this judgment against the Pennsylvania Railroad.

. The majority opinion suggests that this is a “post-hoc rationalization not within the judge’s thought * * It seems to me, however, that the colloquy to which Judge CLARK refers in his footnote 3 indicates quite clearly that this is precisely what Judge Bicks had in mind and what he intended to convey to the jury. Thus as a part 'of that colloquy Judge Bicks said:
“Where you have this kind of warning signal, then you consider that in connection with the rate of speed at which you pass that place, and you consider the rate of. speed in connection with the warning signal. If you had a gate crossing and if you were going 70 or 80 miles an hour, I might be inclined to say that you were not negligent. You must fix a rate of speed under which those conditions are reasonable and prudent, and the jury has a right to consider that as to whether the rate of speed under those circumstances with that limited visibility and that kind of a crossing, was reasonable.”
I think this discussion demonstrates that Judge Bicks intended to hold the railroad to a duty of making the crossing reasonably safe either by providing signals adequate for high-speed trains or by slowing the trains. The example which he gave clearly indicates that if adequate signals were maintained there would be no duty to operate the trains at speeds such that they could be stopped within the visibility of the operator.