Scarano v. Central R. Co. of New Jersey

• Decision Date: 14 April 1953
• Docket Number: No. 10942.,10942.
• Citation: 203 F.2d 510
• Parties: SCARANO v. CENTRAL R. CO. OF NEW JERSEY.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

203 F.2d 510 (1953)

SCARANO v. CENTRAL R. CO. OF NEW JERSEY.

No. 10942.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued March 5, 1953.

Decided April 14, 1953.

Milford J. Meyer, Philadelphia, Pa. (Meyer, Lasch, Hankin & Poul, Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for appellant.

Henry R. Heebner, Philadelphia, Pa. (Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for appellee.

Before McLAUGHLIN, STALEY and HASTIE, Circuit Judges.

HASTIE, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissing a complaint on motion for summary judgment. But the matter in controversy begins with an earlier suit in the same court.

On February 11, 1949 the present plaintiff, then an employee of defendant railroad, was injured by falling from the top of a locomotive. He brought suit against defendant under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, 35 Stat. 63, 1908, as amended, 45 U.S.C.A. § 51 et seq., 1946, to recover for his injuries. Plaintiff alleged and defendant denied that plaintiff was "totally incapacitated from resuming his former occupation or from engaging in any other form of labor." Each side produced medical witnesses who testified in support of its position. For example, one of plaintiff's witnesses testified that plaintiff was "totally disabled" and that his "condition will become progressively worse should he attempt" any work involving "the normal range of use of the back that is usually required in any physical effort." This issue, along with others, was submitted to a jury which, on October 4, 1950, returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff in the sum of $35,000. The evidence which had been submitted to the jury included the facts that plaintiff was forty-nine years old at the time of the accident and that he had earned $3,131.92 in the year preceding the accident. Defendant moved for a new trial, alleging excessive damages as one of its grounds. Before the trial court had ruled on this motion, a settlement in the amount of $27,750 was reached. Pursuant to stipulation, defendant's motion was withdrawn and judgment for the amount of the settlement was entered and marked satisfied on November 27, 1950.

Within less than 30 days thereafter, on December 24, 1950, and again on January 2, 1951, plaintiff called upon defendant to reinstate him in his job, relying on the terms of a collective bargaining agreement between defendant and the International Brotherhood of Firemen, Oilers, Helpers, Roundhouse and Railway Shop Employees of which plaintiff was a member. While the exact terms of the contract are not before us, the parties have proceeded on the assumption that it provides that an employee injured in the course of his employment is entitled to reinstatement with seniority rights as soon as he is physically able to perform the duties of his job. Defendant refused to reinstate plaintiff or to examine him to determine his physical condition.

Plaintiff thereupon brought the present action alleging breach of contract and demanding damages for wages already lost since defendant's refusal on December 24, 1950 to reinstate him, and for future loss of wages. Defendant, without answering the complaint, moved for summary judgment on the ground that "the amount of the judgment in the earlier action was based upon the plaintiff's claim, supported by his medical testimony, that he was totally and permanently disabled from doing railroad work and therefore bars the right of plaintiff to any further compensation * * * either under the contract or otherwise." The record of the earlier action was offered in support of the motion. Plaintiff denied that the earlier litigation was conclusive as to his present condition. The District Court granted summary judgment for defendant. 107 F.Supp. 622. From this judgment, plaintiff now appeals.

This case presents only the question whether plaintiff can thus be stopped at the outset or whether he is entitled to go further in his effort to prove his claim. Plaintiff's theory advanced in this court is that in his present suit on a contract the only relevant question relating to his health is whether or not he was physically qualified to perform the necessary work on the day that he applied for reinstatement, and that this fact is not judicially determined by the judgment entered in the earlier action since there is no way of knowing whether the jury in that action decided that plaintiff was permanently disabled. In any event plaintiff insists that the basis of the general verdict and the settlement are for present purposes disputed questions of fact.

Although plaintiff's argument has merit, we think he was properly stopped at the threshold. It is at least clear from what was before the court that in order to recover for the alleged breach of contract plaintiff must show that when he sought reinstatement he was physically able to perform the work in question. We hold that in the circumstances of this case plaintiff was estopped from making such an assertion.

Lest there be any misunderstanding as to the scope of what we decide, we emphasize that the "estoppel" we here apply is to be distinguished from the traditional "estoppel in pais". Important prerequisites of that concept are lacking in the present case, for defendant did not believe and rely on plaintiff's statement. In fact, defendant offered much evidence at the trial in an effort to disprove plaintiff's assertions as to his physical condition. Had defendant admitted plaintiff's claim of lengthy or permanent total disability and negotiated a settlement, or litigated, solely on the question of the amount of damages to be paid therefor, it would have been in position to invoke the bar of an estoppel in pais.

Nor is the estoppel relied on here equivalent to "collateral estoppel" as that term is used in the Restatement of Judgments. That concept gives to the determination of actually litigated issues by valid and final judgment conclusiveness in all further litigation between the same parties. Restatement, Judgments, § 63 (1942). Since, on the present record, there is a substantial dispute as to what the former judgment decided about plaintiff's physical condition, collateral estoppel cannot be employed at this stage. If in the tort action there had been a finding of fact or an answer to a specific interrogatory to the effect that plaintiff was disabled either permanently or for some specified period of time, and if final judgment had been rendered thereon, there would be no question but that collateral estoppel would bar either party from relitigating that issue against the other. Even had judgment been entered on the general verdict actually rendered in the tort case, rather than on a subsequent settlement, so that what the judgment determined was identical with what the...