Balcom v. Lynn Ladder and Scaffolding Co., Inc., 86-1443
| Decision Date | 16 December 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-1443,86-1443 |
| Citation | 806 F.2d 1127 |
| Parties | Kenneth BALCOM, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. LYNN LADDER AND SCAFFOLDING COMPANY, INC., et al., Defendants, Appellees. John S. Tilley Ladder Co., Inc., Third-Party Defendant, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Sterling H. Schoen, Jr. and Schoen & Bagley, Manchester, N.H., on brief for third-party defendant, appellant.
Robert C. Dewhirst, Bartram C. Branch and Devine, Millimet, Stahl & Branch Professional Ass'n, Manchester, N.H., on brief for defendant, appellee Lynn Ladder and Scaffolding Co., Inc.
Before BOWNES, BREYER and TORRUELLA, Circuit Judges.
Appellant, a third-party defendant in a product liability case, appeals a district court judgment in favor of the defendant. The jury found for the defendant on the ground that the defective aspects of the product at issue, a ladder, did not cause the plaintiff's injuries. The jury also found, via special verdict, that appellant made the ladder in question and that it was defective. Appellant argues that the district court should, somehow, have set aside the finding that the appellant made the ladder.
Appellant cannot appeal the district court's failure to set aside this finding for the basic reason that appellant did not lose the case below; it won. A party cannot appeal a judgment entered in its favor, because it lacks a "personal stake in the appeal" sufficient to support appellate jurisdiction. Deposit Guaranty National Bank v. Roper, 445 U.S. 326, 336, 100 S.Ct. 1166, 1173, 63 L.Ed.2d 427 (1980); see 9 J. Moore, Federal Practice p 203.06, at 3-23 (2d ed. 1985).
Appellant argues that an exception should be made, lest the jury's finding be used against it in some future litigation. But, the short and conclusive answer to this contention is that the challenged finding has no collateral estoppel effect, for it was not essential to the favorable judgment. See Raxton Corp. v. Anania Associates, Inc., 668 F.2d 622, 624 (1st Cir.1982); 18 C. Wright, A. Miller & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 4421, at 199-203 (1981); Scott, Collateral Estoppel by Judgment, 56 Harv.L.Rev. 1, 12-15 (1942). The cases that appellant cites to the contrary involve special circumstances not present here. See Deposit Guaranty National Bank v. Roper, 445 U.S. at 332-33, 100 S.Ct. at 1170-71 (...
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...Wright, A. Miller & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure: Jurisdiction, § 4421 at 199 (1981). See also Balcom v. Lynn Ladder & Scaffolding Co., 806 F.2d 1127 (1st Cir.1986); Raxton Corp. v. Anania Associates, Inc., 668 F.2d 622, 624 (1st Cir.1982). The main reason for denying issue pre......
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