Court Opinion

ID: 9458498
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:53:35.823526+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:47.253394
License: Public Domain

VAN DUSEN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
I respectfully dissent from the conclusion of the majority (Part V, page 282 ff. of majority opinion) that the plaintiff failed to meet his burden of proving that defendants Cataldi and Kinsella denied plaintiff his civil rights through inflicting cruel and unusual punishment upon him. As I read the record of the trial, the following evidence required the district court to deny the motion for a directed verdict at the end of plaintiff’s case.1
The eyewitness testified that two officers entered the police station with plaintiff “and they walked him up to the counter and then the one officer took his hands behind Mr. Howell’s head and smashed it into the counter” (N. T. 45). Plaintiff pushed back from the counter and the two officers then threw him to the floor and hit him with their fists and a blackjack (N. T. 46). At this point, as noted at page 282 of the majority opinion, defendants Cataldi and Kinsella, whom the jury could have found “were the two officers in the car when it happened,” were referred to as participants in the assault.2 All four of the officers then held plaintiff down. Later plaintiff was picked up from the floor and pushed over on the counter, when they took off his handcuffs. He was again hit and knocked down. The eyewitness then testified that plaintiff was assaulted by the four policemen (two of whom were Cataldi and Kinsella, being the two officers “in the car when it happened”) and two additional officers, using this language:
“They were hitting him with the clubs and the blackjacks and they *285were kicking him. His arms were bleeding, his pants were ripped where his legs were bleeding from both shins, and then he squirmed a little more this time so two officers jumped over the counter from out front. That made six, and they all jumped on him until he stopped squirming, and then they lifted him up and took him into the cell block, but that lasted longer the second time than it did the first time.” (Emphasis supplied.)
Since “all” six officers participated in this assault, the defendants Cataldi and Kinsella must have taken part in it also.
Under these circumstances, the following principle contained in § 433B(3), Restatement of Torts 2d, and the totality of the evidence shifted the burden of proof to the defendants to go forward with evidence at the close of plaintiff’s case, since the jury was entitled to accept the above evidence:
“(3) Where the conduct of two or more actors is tortious, and it is proved that harm has been caused to the plaintiff by only one of them, but there is uncertainty as to which one has caused it, the burden is upon each such actor to prove that he has not caused the harm.
******
“Comment on Subsection (3):
“f. ... It arises where the conduct of two or more actors has been proved to be negligent or otherwise tortious, and it is also proved that the harm to the plaintiff has been caused by 'the conduct of only one of them, but there is uncertainty as to which one. In such a case the burden is upon each actor to prove that he did not cause the harm. As in the ease of Subsection (2) the reason for the exception is the injustice of permitting proved wrongdoers, who among them have inflicted an injury upon the entirely innocent plaintiff, to escape liability merely because the nature of their conduct and the resulting harm has made it difficult or impossible to prove which of them has caused the harm.
“g. The rules stated in Subsection (3) applies only where it is proved that each of two or more actors has acted tortiously, and that the harm has resulted from the conduct of some one of them.”
In my view, the above evidence is sufficient to permit the jury to find that each of the above-named defendants assaulted plaintiff, inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on him. I would reverse and remand for a new trial.

. See Raritan Trucking Corporation v. Aero Commander, Inc. et al., 458 F.2d 1106 (3d Cir. 1972), stating that the evidence must be considered in the light most favorable to plaintiff.

. The transcript reads :
“Then the two officers that were in the car when it happened they were standing there and one picked Mr. Howell and one had a wooden club and started banging on his shins, and this went on for it seemed like a long time, for a few minutes or so, until Mr. Howell stopped squirming.”
Although the first dictionary meaning of the verb “pick” includes an assault with a pointed object, as noted in footnote 13 of the majority opinion, it seems more sensible to remand the case for determination of whether the notes of testimony do not indicate that “kicked” was the word used by the witness, in view of this language appearing at page 14 of the deposition of the eyewitness (Document 9 in district court file) :
“So the cops grabbed each foot and then used these wooden clubs. One was hitting him on the shins with a wooden club, one was hitting him on the shoulders with a blackjack, and one was kieMnff him in the ribs, and one was just hitting him with his hands.
“Q. While he was on the floor?
“A. Right. They were holding him down. There were 4 of them holding him, . . . ” (Emphasis supplied.)