Montgomery v. Virginia Stage Lines, Inc.

• Decision Date: 28 June 1951
• Docket Number: No. 10254.,10254.
• Citation: 191 F.2d 770,89 US App. DC 213
• Parties: MONTGOMERY v. VIRGINIA STAGE LINES, Inc.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

89 US App. DC 213, 191 F.2d 770 (1951)

MONTGOMERY v. VIRGINIA STAGE LINES, Inc.

No. 10254.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued May 1, 1951.

Decided June 28, 1951.

Messrs. T. Bruce Fuller, Washington, D. C., and Robert H. McNeill, Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Mr. Joseph S. McCarthy, Washington, D. C., with whom Mr. Wilbert McInerney, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellee.

Before WILBUR K. MILLER, PROCTOR and FAHY, Circuit Judges.

FAHY, Circuit Judge.

Appellant was a passenger in a bus of the appellee, a common carrier. She sued in the District Court to recover for injuries alleged to have been caused by her suitcase falling upon her from the rack above her. The evidence at the trial discloses that she had boarded the bus in Washington and that the accident occurred at a point in Virginia some 170 miles beyond. There is a dispute as to whether she or the operator of the vehicle, defendant's employee, placed the suitcase in the rack. There is also a divergence in the testimony as to how far the bag overhung the outer bar of the rack. On the other hand, both parties substantially agree that the operator told the appellant, when she came aboard, that the suitcase was too large for the rack and should be put in a special baggage compartment under the floor of the vehicle. It appears that she demurred, saying she wanted to keep it in sight. The case was submitted to the jury, who found for the defendant.

I. The substantive point on appeal goes to the adequacy of the instructions to the jury. The plaintiff presented in written form the following requests for instructions, among others:

"If the jury believes from the evidence that the defendant was a common carrier of passengers, and that plaintiff was, on the occasion in question, a passenger on the defendant's bus, and that defendant's agent, the driver of the bus, had notice that the large, heavy suit case was on the rack over head of plaintiff in a position which could become dangerous, and that said driver failed to remove said baggage or to secure it properly on said rack and the fall of the baggage was such that in the ordinary course of travel would not have happened had the driver seen to it that the baggage was placed so that it would not fall in the ordinary course of travel, defendant is liable to the plaintiff from the injury resulting from the improper stowage and fall of the baggage on plaintiff's head."

"If you should find from the evidence that when the conductor of the bus on which plaintiff was riding observed her suitcase on the rack of the bus projecting over the outer edge of the rack, and that his failure to make it safe by either removing it or fastening it to the rack, and that his failure to do either of said things was the proximate cause of plaintiff's injury resulting from the suitcase falling from the rack and struck her on the neck and head, the plaintiff would be entitled to recover * * *."

The first of these "prayers" bears a notation of the trial judge that it was denied. On the other he noted, "Granted in substance, denied as framed." The substance of neither, however, appears to us to have been actually given to the jury. This we think was error.

The Interstate Commerce Commission Motor Carrier Regulations provide that a carrier and its employees engaged in transportation shall comply (49 C.F.R. § 193.1) with the following: "Loading of buses. All baggage, freight, or express carried in any bus shall be so loaded as not to interfere with the free and ready entering or leaving such bus, and shall be so stowed as to prevent falling onto or against any passenger." (49 C.F.R. § 193.9(d))

The regulations were not called to the attention of the court. But the requested instructions themselves contain the substance of the regulations. That the particular regulation stating the duty was not invoked or introduced in evidence did not relieve the court of the obligation to instruct, on request, as to the duty which existed. Lilly v. Grand Trunk R. Co., 1943, 317 U.S. 481, 488-489, 63 S.Ct. 347, 87 L. Ed. 411. General instructions on negligence and proximate cause became insufficient in the face of requests that the court be more specific on an important phase of defendant's obligation to passengers for the safe stowage of baggage, since the alleged injuries resulted from the fall of baggage.

"* * * It has long been the rule that, as against a mere general or abstract charge, a party is entitled to a specific instruction on his theory of the case, if there is evidence to support it and if a proper request for such an instruction is made. * * *" Chicago & N. W. Ry. Co. v. Green, 8 Cir., 1947, 164 F.2d 55, 61; see, also, Cobb v. Capital Transit Co., 1945, 79 U.S. App.D.C. 364, 148 F.2d 217; Feldmann v. Connecticut Mut. Life Ins. Co., 8 Cir., 1944, 142 F.2d 628, 631. Though the requests were not entirely correct as instructions on the case as a whole, the gist of them was sufficiently important and clear to require their substance to be given.

"While a party may not complain of the refusal of a requested instruction which does not correctly state the law, the court being under no obligation to reframe a request so as to contain an accurate statement of law, yet where, as here, the meaning of a request is reasonably apparent, and its subject-matter is important and not sufficiently covered by the general charge, a court would not be justified in ignoring the request merely because susceptible of such an interpretation as to make its proposition not absolutely accurate.

* * *" Rothe v. Pennsylvania Co., 6 Cir., 1912, 195 F. 21, 25; to like effect are E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. v. Frechette, 8 Cir., 1947, 161 F.2d 318, 323; Pfotzer v. Aqua Systems, 2 Cir., 1947, 162 F.2d 779, 783; and Chicago & N. W. Ry. Co. v. Green, supra. Compare Capital Traction Co. v. Copland, 1917, 47 App.D.C. 152, 162. Though it be assumed plaintiff was herself negligent in placing the bag in the rack, nevertheless she was entitled upon request to a charge that if this occurred with knowledge of the driver and he had ample opportunity thereafter to correct the situation but failed to do so (compare Williams v. New Jersey-New York Transit Co., 2 Cir., 1940, 113 F.2d 649; Merritt v. Interstate Transit Lines, 8 Cir., 1948, 171 F.2d 605), they might find there was negligence on the part of the defendant and that, if this negligence was the proximate cause of the accident, she should recover if injury resulted.

II. Appellee urges, however, that appellant failed to reserve the point for review as required by Rule 51 of the Fed.R. Civ.P., set forth in the margin.¹ The circumstances

pertinent to this contention are as follows:

A few moments prior to argument to the jury counsel for plaintiff stated, "If Your Honor please, I have some special prayers which I would like to present." The court responded, "Submit your instructions in writing and I will pass upon them." There ensued a brief discussion about the time likely to be consumed in argument. Then, as the transcript indicates, the arguments were made, followed by a short recess, whereupon the court instructed the jury. It does not appear when the requested instructions were submitted or acted upon, except that they bear the notations to which we have referred, dated the last day of the trial. If they were submitted after the charge was made, or if they had been previously submitted and were pending and unacted upon when the charge was completed, objection to their denial should be deemed to have been made after the charge, reading Rule 51 with Rule 46.² That these Rules should be considered together is held in Wright v. Farm Journal, 2 Cir., 1947, 158 F.2d 976, where a request for a "further instruction" is considered equivalent to an objection for purposes of Rule 51. To like effect is Williams v. Powers, 6 Cir., 1943, 135 F.2d 153, 156, where it is said: "Rule 51 should be read in conjunction with Rule 46. The purpose of these rules is to inform the trial judge of possible errors, that he may have an opportunity to consider his rulings and if necessary to correct them, and where it appears in the record that the point urged on appeal was called to the attention of the trial court in such manner as to clearly advise it as to the question of law involved, that is sufficient. * * *"³

It is true that in Frasca v. Howell, 1950, 87 U.S.App.D.C. 52, 182 F.2d 703, 704, this court held that it is not required to consider error where "No objection was made at any time to denial of the proposed instructions," but the court nevertheless considered and found no error in the charge. Furthermore, the effect of Rule 46 was not taken into account. In Ersler v. Schneider Corporation, 1951, 88 U.S. App.D.C. 371, 188 F.2d 1022, we pointed out the...