Baldwin v. Warwick, 13531.
| Decision Date | 10 June 1954 |
| Docket Number | No. 13531.,13531. |
| Citation | 213 F.2d 485 |
| Parties | BALDWIN et al. v. WARWICK. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
W. T. Choisser, Frank W. Beer, Hess Seaman, Phoenix, Ariz., for appellants.
Darrell R. Parker, Phoenix, Ariz., for appellee.
Before HEALY, ORR, and CHAMBERS, Circuit Judges.
Federal jurisdiction in this case is asserted and conceded on diversity grounds. Appellee sued for damages alleging that appellants, pursuant to a conspiracy between them, had defrauded him of $4800 by a trick and device inducing amnesia in him by means of drugged drinks. In addition to a prayer for the recovery of that sum, he asked punitive damages in the amount of $100,000. The jury returned a verdict awarding him $54,500 of which it is clear that $4,500 was for actual and the rest for punitive damages. Appellants moved for a new trial, grounding their motion in part on a claim of excessive damages appearing to have been given under the influence of passion and prejudice. The motion was denied.
In brief, the evidence on appellee's behalf shows that he was sought out by appellants purportedly to discuss real estate, he being a dealer therein. Pursuant to the discussion he picked up the two appellants at San Diego to show them some property in La Jolla. On the way to the latter place the three stopped several times at bars, each time shaking dice to determine who should pay for the drinks. Presently they began shaking dice for money. Appellee testified that at this juncture a cocktail shaker containing unpoured drinks was set beside one of the appellants. Appellee's mind shortly became hazy and he recalled only that his glass was thereafter kept full by appellant Bowman, the possessor of the cocktail shaker. An inference drawable from his testimony is that the drinks served him were drugged.
Appellee lost heavily in the game, making out in the course of it three checks for a total of $4500, though he did not recall having done so. These checks appellants promptly cashed. Appellee remembered only that at 6 p. m. that evening he awoke on a bench at the Del Mar race track and that his pockets were shy $300 in cash which he had had that morning.
The position of the defense was that the drinking and gambling on appellee's part was voluntary, that there was no drugging of his drinks, and that he was at all times aware of what he was about. The parties are in agreement that, absent a statute, the law will normally leave those who participate in a gambling transaction in the place where their activity finds them. Nor is there disagreement on the proposition that...
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