McWilliams v. Texaco, Inc.
| Decision Date | 31 January 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-3451,84-3451 |
| Citation | 781 F.2d 514 |
| Parties | , 19 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1496 Jesse F. McWILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TEXACO, INC., Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Henderson, Hanemann & Morris, Philip Henderson, Houma, La., for plaintiff-appellant.
Lemle, Kelleher, Kohlmeyer & Matthews, Edward F. Kohnke, IV, James R. Silverstein, New Orleans, La., for defendant-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Before CLARK, Chief Judge, BROWN and GEE, Circuit Judges.
In this appeal, a seaman complains of three errors in the trial of his Jones Act 1 negligence suit: (1) the submission of the case to the jury by a general, rather than a special verdict; (2) the improper grant of a directed verdict as to the rate at which he was entitled to receive maintenance; and, (3) the entry of a directed verdict against his claim for punitive damages for his employer's allegedly willful refusal to pay maintenance.
Although we reject as without merit the seaman's contentions regarding the form of the verdict and his entitlement to punitive damages, we hold that the trial court erred in limiting proof of the maintenance issue to only that evidence which related to the seaman's actual expenses during the maintenance-cure period. We therefore reverse and remand on that issue.
Jesse McWilliams was a seaman for over thirty-five years. The last sixteen years of his seafaring life were spent exclusively aboard vessels owned by Texaco, Inc., primarily aboard the oil tanker S.S. TEXACO NEW JERSEY. Over the course of three years, 2 McWilliams was involved in a series of four mishaps that allegedly caused him injury. After the last of his accidents, McWilliams disembarked from the TEXACO NEW JERSEY and never again returned to sea. He alleged that the accidents resulted from Texaco's negligence, and filed suit seeking damages under the Jones Act and for unseaworthiness under the general maritime law.
At trial, McWilliams introduced evidence on the issue of his employer's liability, and also attempted to introduce evidence relating to his claim for maintenance. On the maintenance issue, however, the trial court permitted him to introduce only that evidence which related to the actual expenditures he incurred while convalescing in his hometown of Pineapple, Alabama. The court refused to allow proffered evidence as to the reasonable cost of living in that small town, and eventually entered a directed verdict which awarded the seaman maintenance at the contract rate of $8.00 per day. The judge also ruled that the seaman had failed to adduce the necessary proof in support of his claim for punitive damages and, consequently, directed a verdict in favor of Texaco on that claim.
The case was submitted to the jury by a general charge with a special verdict. The jury answered two questions in the negative: (i) was plaintiff's employer, Texaco, Inc., negligent; and, (ii) was the vessel in question unseaworthy. McWilliams neither objected to that method of submission, nor requested a special issue verdict under F.R.Civ.P. 49(a). Thus, without being asked to differentiate among the several accidents, 3 the jury found that Texaco was not negligent. The trial judge entered judgment for the company on the question of liability and awarded McWilliams maintenance at the rate of $8 per day. This appeal followed.
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McWilliams first contends that the submission of the case by a general charge calling for a verdict without special interrogatories was an abuse of discretion by the trial judge. The seaman had sought damages for injuries that arose from four separate incidents. He contends that the jury should have been required to answer separate sets of special interrogatories directed to each of the four incidents in order to determine the issues of Texaco's negligence and his damages. Submission of this case by general charge and the modified special verdict, he asserts, confused the jury and rendered its verdict more than ordinarily inscrutable upon appellate review.
The manner in which the case will be submitted to a jury rests within the sound discretion of the trial judge. Under F.R.Civ.P. 49(a), a judge may choose to submit an entire case by general charge with a special verdict. We have often encouraged the use of special interrogatories as a means both of clarifying jury verdicts, 4 and of requiring the jury to specify the ground of recovery upon which it relied in reaching its verdict. 5 We have emphasized that special interrogatories provide this court with a readily identifiable basis for appellate review of jury findings. 6
The use of general interrogatories to probe disparate allegations of negligence, if properly objected to by a party, would in all likelihood meet with our decisive disapproval. With four separate (and probatively uncertain) incidents, and for similar trials in the future, the use of special interrogatories addressed separately to each incident would certainly be preferable. But we cannot fault the trial judge. McWilliams neither objected to the form of submission of his case, nor requested special interrogatories directed to each of the four incidents.
Ordinarily, the burden is on a party to request a significant special interrogatory from the trial judge. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 49(a) speaks squarely to this issue. It provides several things. First, it requires the court to give essential instruction and explanation to the jury. It then goes on to state that if in doing so
the court omits any issue of fact raised by the pleadings or by the evidence, each party waives his right to a trial by jury of the issue so omitted unless before the jury retires he demands its submission to the jury. As to an issue omitted without such demand the court may make a finding; or, if it fails to do so, it shall be deemed to have made a finding in accord with the judgment on the special verdict.
F.R.Civ.P. 49(a). McWilliams has failed to preserve his objection as required by the rule. "[A]n objection to an interrogatory, or lack thereof, must be made prior to the retiring of the jury or the objection is waived." Central Progressive Bank v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Co., 658 F.2d 377, 381 (5th Cir.1981) (emphasis added). Having failed to make such a request, McWilliams can now make no objection to the use of this verdict. His appeal on this point is thus without merit.
The next port of call is maintenance. In the course of determining the amount of maintenance to which McWilliams was entitled, the trial court admitted evidence of McWilliams' actual expenses during his convalescence. It refused, however, to permit the introduction of any evidence relating to the reasonable cost of various living expenses in Pineapple, Alabama during that period. In fact, the District Court granted a directed verdict on the issue, instructing the jury that McWilliams was to be awarded maintenance at the rate of $8.00 per day.
We conclude that it was error for the trial court to so limit the proof, and to grant an instructed verdict on the issue. Thus, we remand to permit the District Court to receive further evidence which would bear on the trier's conclusion as to the rate at which McWilliams should have received maintenance.
Generally speaking, the purpose of an award of maintenance to a seaman during his recovery period flowing from an illness or injury received while in the service of a ship, is to provide him with food and lodging ashore similar to that which he received aboard the vessel. 7 The amount and duration of maintenance to which a seaman is entitled within the limit of the rules is, therefore, usually a question of fact. Caulfield v. AC & D Marine, 633 F.2d 1129, 1132 (5th Cir.1981). This is inevitably the case, because the amount necessary to ensure that a seaman receives appropriate maintenance and cure will vary according to the nature of his injury, the recovery process, and the place in which he is required to convalesce.
Evidence of a seaman's actual expenses during his incapacity is certainly a relevant starting point in this fact-specific inquiry, 8 but it is not necessarily a sufficient finish line. Actual expenses do not always provide a satisfactory benchmark, because in many cases a seaman may not have sufficient funds to obtain the kind of maintenance which the law provides him. For want of means, he may spend very little, simply because he is unable to fend for himself. On the other hand, he may be compelled to seek maintenance in a port where the cost of obtaining shipboard equivalents is prohibitively high. In short, the amount a seaman actually expends may be insufficient to provide him "with so much as he had on shipboard in his health." 9
What, then, is a trial court to consider in setting the level of maintenance? The cases teach that when the seaman is provided with care by others, the ship's master is relieved of his liability for the obligation. Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 46, 50, 68 S.Ct. 391, 394, 92 L.Ed. 468, 473, 1948 A.M.C. 218, 221 (1948). Similarly, "the seaman must present some evidence that he expended sums for food and lodging ashore that was equivalent" to that provided on the vessel. Springborn, 767 F.2d at 95. The fact that a seaman is actually able to live on a pittance, however, does not limit him to that recovery, nor does it establish that he was provided with adequate living conditions during his recovery. Thus, the court should allow relevant evidence to determine whether the sums actually expended by the seaman were adequate to afford him substantial shipboard equivalents. If they were not, then the Court should hear evidence as to the reasonable cost for such services as lodging and food in the place where the seaman is recovering. This fact-specific inquiry will enable the Court...
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