Tanno v. S.S. President Madison Ves, s. 86-5872
| Decision Date | 15 October 1987 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 86-5872,86-5910,s. 86-5872 |
| Citation | 830 F.2d 991 |
| Parties | , 9 Fed.R.Serv.3d 506 William S. TANNO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. S.S. PRESIDENT MADISON VES; American President Lines, Ltd., Defendants-Appellees. William S. TANNO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. S.S. PRESIDENT MADISON VES; American President Lines, Ltd., Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Charlotte E. Costan, Burbank, Cal., for plaintiff-appellant/cross-appellee.
Robert D. Feighner, Long Beach, Cal., for defendants-appellees/cross-appellants.
Appeal and Cross Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Before HALL, NOONAN and THOMPSON, Circuit Judges.
William S. Tanno appeals from a denial of a new trial in a Jones Act (46 U.S.C. Sec. 688) and maritime tort action in which the jury found the defendants negligent but gave smaller damages than Tanno sought. The defendants, S.S. President Madison and American President Lines, Ltd., cross-appeal, seeking different instructions on contributory negligence if a new trial is granted. We affirm the district court.
Tanno, fifty-three at the time, was a member of a galley crew of the President Madison, bound from Kobe for Los Angeles. On March 16, 1984 during a severe storm, with the ship pitching and rolling in heavy seas, Tanno was ordered to clean the ship's freezer boxes. Tanno suggested they wait, but his superior persisted in his order. Tanno began to clean the frozen meat locker. After scrubbing about ten minutes, he slipped, fell backwards and landed on his left elbow.
The ship's purser diagnosed a possible fracture, splinted the arm straight, and wrapped it with bandages. Tanno's arm swelled down to his hand and changed color, becoming black, blue, and yellowish. He was in pain.
Six days after the accident, March 22, 1984, the President Madison reached port, and Tanno was taken to the emergency room at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital. He was examined by Leslie James Harris, an orthopedic surgeon. Harris found a dislocation of one of the bones in the elbow. As it dislocated, a piece of bone came off the radial head and left two loose pieces of bone in the joint. Harris proceeded to perform surgery of forty-five minutes duration, removing the fragments of bone, reducing the radial head to its proper position, and repairing the ligament on the outside of the elbow joint. Tanno was discharged from the hospital three days later, on March 25.
Harris saw Tanno again on March 27, examining the surgical wound and changing the splint and again on April 9, 1987, when the wound had healed but, according to Harris, Tanno would still have been feeling pain. Tanno continued to complain of pain in his elbow as late as August 29, 1985 when examined by his own physician, Dr. John Howard, who detected tenderness in the elbow throughout his examination. At no time, however, during the period May 24, 1984--August 29, 1985 did Tanno ask Howard for pain medication.
Tanno brought suit against defendants on January 3, 1985. The case was tried before a jury which was asked to bring in a special verdict. The jury found American President Lines, Ltd. negligent and the negligence the legal cause of injury and damage to Tanno. The jury then answered the following question in the following way:
What is the total amount of damage suffered by the plaintiff, the legal cause of which was the incident in question? Indicate as follows:
Past Wage Loss; $34,779.00 ($1932 00/100 x 18
mos.) (based on
1983 Income)
Past Physical Pain and
Mental Suffering: $6,000.00 ($1,000.00 per day
Future Loss of Earning for the 6 days
Capacity: $0 before he was
Future Physical Pain hospitalized)
and Mental Suffering: $0
Total: $40,779.00
Judgment was entered on the verdict. Tanno moved for a new trial on the ground that the jury had given inconsistent answers. The motion was denied. Tanno appealed.
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Estate of Casillas v. City of Fresno
...a prior Ninth Circuit case, holding that a trial court must ignore parenthetical comments as surplusage (see Tanno v. S.S. President Madison Ves, 830 F.2d 991, 993 (9th Cir. 1987)), as well as the persuasive authority of a Fifth Circuit case holding that trial court must ignore subsequent a......
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Norris v. Sysco Corp.
...a jury answers special interrogatories and the answers cannot be reconciled, a new trial must be granted." Tanno v. S.S. President Madison Ves, 830 F.2d 991, 992 (9th Cir. 1987). But it is also true that we do not find inconsistency lightly. Rather: We are bound to find the special verdicts......
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Floyd v. Laws
...(trial court must ignore subsequent answers, given in violation of instructions, as surplusage); cf. Tanno v. S.S. President Madison Ves, 830 F.2d 991, 993 (9th Cir.1987) (trial court must ignore parenthetical comments as surplusage). Together, Tanno and White stand for the general proposit......
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Riddle v. Tex-fin Inc.
...removal and replacement. Id. at 925-26. The Great Pines court cited favorably to the Ninth Circuit's opinion in Tanno v. S.S. President Madison Ves, 830 F.2d 991 (9th Cir.1987). In Tanno, the jury returned a verdict in favor of a maritime-tort plaintiff and answered questions about damages ......