Adriaanse v. United States, 25

• Decision Date: 09 November 1950
• Docket Number: No. 25,Docket 21687.,25
• Citation: 184 F.2d 968
• Parties: ADRIAANSE v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

184 F.2d 968 (1950)

ADRIAANSE v. UNITED STATES.

No. 25, Docket 21687.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued October 9, 1950.

Decided November 9, 1950.

Jacob Rassner, New York City, for libellant-appellant, Robert Klonsky, New York City, on the brief.

J. Vincent Keogh, U. S. Atty., Brooklyn, N. Y., for respondent-appellee, C. John Dirosse, New York City, advocate.

Before AUGUSTUS N. HAND, CHASE and FRANK, Circuit Judges.

AUGUSTUS N. HAND, Circuit Judge.

The libellant, a seaman who was employed on the Steamship Leonard L. Romero, sued respondent United States, owner of the vessel, to recover damages for injuries sustained while so employed through the alleged negligence of the respondent. Adriaanse had already brought an action at law to recover for the same injuries under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688, against Polarus Steamship Company as the general agent of the owner of the vessel. The action was based on the claim that Adriaanse had suffered personal injuries as the result of the negligence of the steamship company, or its employees. The trial resulted in a verdict by a jury in favor of Polarus Steamship Company to the effect that the defendant was not negligent. The respondent in the case at bar pleaded the decision in the prior action as res judicata and the judge dismissed the libel for that reason.

A similar situation arose in the recent case of Bruszewski v. United States, 3 Cir., 181 F.2d 419, in the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. It was there held that Bruszewski, a seaman, who had failed to recover against the general operating agent because of inability to prove negligence, was not entitled to relitigate his claim in a suit in admiralty against the United States. Neither in Bruszewski's action nor in the case at bar was there in a strict sense proof of res judicata, for in neither case had the United States ever had its day in court and thus mutuality was lacking. Nor, strictly speaking, was there privity in either case. The question is whether those cases fell within the broader ground adverted to by Mr. Justice Lurton in discussing the doctrine of res judicata in Bigelow v. Old Dominion Copper Co., 225 U.S. 111, at page 227, 32 S.Ct. 641 at page 642, 56 L.Ed. 1009: He there said:

"It is a principle of general elementary law that the estoppel of a judgment must be mutual. Brooklyn City & N. Railroad Co. v. National Bank, 102 U.S. 14, 26 L. Ed. 61; Keokuk & W. Railroad v. State of Missouri, 152 U.S. 301, 14 S.Ct. 592, 38 L. Ed. 450; Freeman, Judgm. § 159; Greenl. Ev. 13th Ed. § 524. * * * "An apparent exception to this rule of mutuality had been held to exist where the liability of the defendant is altogether dependent upon the culpability of one exonerated in a prior suit, upon the same facts when sued by the same plaintiff. See Portland Gold Mining Co. v. Stratton's Independence, 10 Cir., 158 F. 63, where the cases are collected. The unilateral character of the estoppel of an adjudication in such cases is justified by the injustice which would result in allowing a recovery against a defendant for conduct of another, when that other has been exonerated in a direct suit. The cases in which it has been enforced are cases where the relation between the defendants in the two suits has been that of principal and agent, master and servant, or indemnitor and indemnitee."

In Portland Gold Mining Co. v. Stratton's Independence, 158 F. 63, 68, Judge Van Devanter, writing for a Circuit Court of Appeals consisting of himself, Circuit Judge Walter H. Sanborn, and District Judge John F. Philips, said that: "* * * it is settled by repeated decisions that the general rule that one may not have the benefit of a judgment as an estoppel unless he would have been bound by it had it been the other way is subject to recognized exceptions, one of which is that in actions of tort, such as trespass, if the defendant's responsibility is necessarily dependent upon the culpability of another, who was the immediate actor, and...