Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company v. Deen

• Decision Date: 19 November 1958
• Docket Number: No. A-6584,A-6584
• Parties: GULF, COLORADO & SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY, Petitioner, v. Earl R. DEEN. Respondent.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 913

317 S.W.2d 913

159 Tex. 238

GULF, COLORADO & SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY, Petitioner, v. Earl R. DEEN. Respondent.

No. A-6584.

Supreme Court of Texas.

Nov. 19, 1958.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 10, 1958.

Woodruff & Holloway, Brownwood, Hudson, Keltner & Sarsgard, Fort Worth, McLeod, Mills, Shirley & Alexander, Galveston, for Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Co.

David C. McCord, Dallas, Johnson, Guthrie & Stanfield, Dallas, for Earl R. Deen.

GARWOOD, Justice.

By our opinion delivered May 7, 1958 (312 S.W.2d 933) in this suit under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 51 et seq., we reversed the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals (306 S.W.2d 171), which, in reliance upon a judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States in this same cause (353 U.S. 925, 77 S.Ct. 715, 1 L.Ed.2d 721), had affirmed the judgment of the trial court in favor of the plaintiff Deen conditioned upon remittitur by him of $5500.00. The cause was remanded by us to the Court of Civil Appeals 'with directions-to adjudicate, upon its own independent evaluation of the evidence, and wholly apart from the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States, whether or not the jury finding of negligence of the defendant-is so against the weight and preponderance of the evidence as to require a new trial in the interest of justice and, upon the basis of its said adjudication, to either affirm the judgment of the trial court or grant a new trial.' This action was taken at the behest of the defendant Railway Company as petitioner in this Court.

In the same proceeding we denied the plaintiff Deen, who was also a petitioner, any relief against the above-mentioned action of the Court of Civil Appeals in requiring a remittitur as a condition of its affirmance of the trial court judgment.

From our judgment the plaintiff Deen sought relief in the Supreme Court of the United States by (1) mandamus 'requiring the Supreme Court of Texas to vacate its judgment rendered on May 7, 1958, in this cause and requiring the said The Supreme Court of Texas to render a judgment and decree sustaining and affirming the judgment of the trial court rendered April 12, 1954, subject to a remittitur in the sum of $5,500, but without prejudice to Deen's right to seek review of such remittitur-by Petition for Writ of Certiorari-.', and (2) writ of certiorari to review our mentioned judgment in all respects in which it was unfavorable to the plaintiff Deen, including our rejection of his complaint against the requirement of remittitur by the Court of Civil Appeals. In the Supreme Court of the United States the mandamus proceeding was given the number 113 Misc., and the certiorari proceeding number 187, October Term, 1958.

Under date of October 27, 1958, the relief sought by mandamus was in effect granted, as evidenced by the Court's per curiam opinion of that date ¹, and the relief by certiorari denied by order of the same date which stated the denial to be 'in view of the order entered this day in Deen v. Hickman, 79 S.Ct. 1.' 79 S.Ct. 111.

Pursuant to the action of the Supreme Court of the United States in the mandamus proceeding, it is our duty to withdraw our previous judgment and render a new decision conformably to the decision of that Court. Our above-mentioned decision and judgment of May 7, 1958, are accordingly revoked, except in so far as they refused to disturb the action of the Court of Civil Appeals in requiring the remittitur; and judgment is now rendered in favor of the plaintiff, subject to said remittitur, all as more fully hereinafter provided.

By motion, the plaintiff prays that we not only affirm the latter judgment in respect to its having upheld a recovery in his favor, but also modify said judgment to the extent of eliminating the remittitur therein required. As to this, it is enough to say that, since we have heretofore decided, as above stated, that the Court of Civil Appeals had the power to require the remittitur, and since the above described action of the Supreme Court of the United States conspicuously forbears to disturb this part of our decision, but, on the contrary, denies the writ of certiorari wherein the plaintiff sought to review it, we must decline to reconsider the question on its merits.

It is therefore ordered that the plaintiff Earl R. Deen do have and recover of the defendant, Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company and the sureties on its supersedeas bond, to wit, T. W. Lain and R. K. Hutchings, jointly and severally, the principal sum of $15,950, with interest thereon at the rate of 6% per annum from the rate of the trial court judgment, to wit, April 12, 1954, until paid; further ordered that out of said recovery and as a credit against the same, there shall be paid by the defendant to the Railroad Retirement Board the sum of $650, being the amount of a loan from said Board to the plaintiff, payable out of said recovery by agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant; further ordered that the costs of this litigation in the state courts shall be paid as follows: the costs incurred in the Court of Civil Appeals through the entry of the first judgment rendered by that Court shall be paid by the plaintiff; and all other costs, including those incurred in the trial court, shall be paid by the defendant; such allocation of costs being substantially the same as would have been made if the Court of Civil Appeals had in the first instance rendered the judgment which has now become the final judgment in this cause; that no interest on said costs shall be recovered by either party; that the costs incurred in the Supreme Court of the United States, including any recoverable interest thereon, shall be paid exclusively as may be adjudged by that Court; and that as to state court costs recoverable hereunder by the defendant, the defendant is denied the right to offset the same against costs incurred by it in the Supreme Court of the United States, except as the latter Court may otherwise order.

SMITH, Justice (dissenting).

I respectfully dissent. The per curiam opinion by the United States Supreme Court rendered on October 27, 1958, conclusively forecloses the question of remittitur against the petitioner. The majority seems to attach considerable significance to the action of the Supreme Court in denying relief by certiorari. I think the majority has again misconstrued the opinion of the Supreme Court just as this Court misconstrued the opinion in Deen v. Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Ry. Co., 353 U.S. 925, 77 S.Ct. 715, 1 L.Ed.2d 721. The majority still overlooks...