O'TELL v. NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN AND HARTFORD R. CO.

• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
• Writing for the Court: CLARK, , and FRANK and HINCKS, Circuit
• Citation: O'TELL v. NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN AND HARTFORD R. CO., 236 F.2d 472 (2nd Cir. 1956)
• Decision Date: 05 September 1956
• Docket Number: Docket 24026.,No. 379,379
• Parties: Irene F. O'TELL, Administratrix of the Estate of John O'Tell, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN AND HARTFORD RAILROAD COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

236 F.2d 472 (1956)

Irene F. O'TELL, Administratrix of the Estate of John O'Tell, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN AND HARTFORD RAILROAD COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 379, Docket 24026.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued May 8, 1956.

Decided September 5, 1956.

Dennis N. Garvey, New Haven, Conn., Caplan & Garvey, New Haven, Conn. (Richard A. Dice, New Haven, Conn., on the brief), for plaintiff-appellant.

Thomas P. Hackett, New Haven, Conn. (Edwin H. Hall, New Haven, Conn., of counsel), for defendant-appellee.

Before CLARK, Chief Judge, and FRANK and HINCKS, Circuit Judges.

HINCKS, Circuit Judge.

The facts relevant to this appeal are not in dispute. They are as follows. The plaintiff, as administratrix brought an action under Federal Employers' Liability Act, 45 U.S.C.A. §§ 51-60, against the defendant railroad company, for injuries to and for the death of her son, an employee of the railroad. The defendant in its answer pleaded a release as a bar to the action, claiming that it had paid the plaintiff $2500 in full satisfaction of the claims for which the suit was brought. In her reply, the plaintiff admitted receiving the money but claimed that the release was invalid, and that she at all times was willing, able and ready to return the money to the defendant but her tender thereof had been refused.

At the trial, the Judge referred to the $2500 which the plaintiff received for her release, and charged the jury that only if it found the release invalid could a verdict for plaintiff be given and that if it found "that the purported release in this case is invalid and of no force and effect, * * * you will disregard the purported release in your consideration of this case." It may be noted that the instruction just quoted was given at the plaintiff's express request. In his charge as to the damages to be awarded the Judge instructed the jury as to the measure of damages under F. E. L. A. and specified several factors which the jury should consider, such as monetary loss to the plaintiff of support reasonably expected from her deceased son, the plaintiff's expectancy of life, and present value of a lump sum, and fair compensation for the pain suffered by the deceased son prior to his death. But nowhere in the charge was the jury instructed to deduct from the damages as found the sum of $2500 which the plaintiff had received for the release which she had signed. No exceptions were taken to the charge as given.

A general verdict of $5000 for the plaintiff was returned. The clerk on November 9, 1955, with the Judge's approval, entered judgment for $5000 plus costs. On December 14, 1955 execution was issued in the amount of $5000, which was stayed on oral order of the Judge. Thereafter, on January 12, 1955, the plaintiff moved to vacate the stay of execution and on January 14, 1955, defendant filed a "Motion De Satisfaction of Judgment" reciting its check for $2500 paid to the plaintiff as consideration for the contested release, and praying in effect that the sum of $2500 represented by said check should be applied as part payment against the $5000 judgment.

Judge Smith disposed of both motions by an order directing (a) that the $2500 release money retained by the plaintiff should be credited against the judgment and (b) that execution might issue for the balance. From this order the plaintiff appeals.

The crux of the problem presented is one of interpretation, viz.: whether (a) Judge Smith correctly interpreted the general verdict of $5000 as importing that $5000 represented the amount of the plaintiff's damages measured in accordance with his instructions or (b) whether the verdict imported that the jury having fixed the plaintiff's damages at $7500 had deducted therefrom the sum of $2500 paid for the release. For solution of the problem it is necessary only to examine the charge. As already noted, the jury was instructed as to the proper measure of damages and was left to assess the damages without any instruction to make a deduction from the damages found. Moreover, as already noted, the jury was specifically instructed to "disregard the purported release in your its consideration of the case," if the release were found invalid. In the light of these instructions, we think it reasonably clear that the jury, as instructed, disregarded the release and found the plaintiff's damages in the principal amount of $5000 only. No one will contend that F. E. L. A. cases constitute an exception to the rule that in the absence of a compelling showing to the contrary a verdict should be interpreted in accordance with a presumption that the jury followed the judge's instructions. Cf. Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Hadley, 246 U.S. 330, 334, 38 S.Ct. 318, 62 L.Ed. 751.

The plaintiff relies heavily on Seaboard Air Line Railroad Co. v. Gill, 4 Cir., 227 F.2d 64, 67, in which the court interpreted the verdict to represent the amount of damages due the plaintiff after deducting the consideration given for a release which was found to be invalid. But in so far as can be ascertained from the appellate opinion, that interpretation of the verdict depended upon the fact that in that case the verdict had been returned "in answer to the question * * * as to what amount the plaintiff was entitled to recover of the defendant on account of the death of the deceased." And in Gill the court stressed the fact that the jury had "passed on the amount due to the plaintiff with the opportunity to take into account the money he had already received." Thus the Gill case is not apposite to that now before us. For the verdict here was in response to instructions as to the measure of damages under the Federal Employers' Liability Act and the case was submitted not only without instruction or opportunity to the jury to deduct the release money from the damages but rather with express direction to disregard the purported release. A similar situation appears to have been presented in Mandeville v. Jacobson, 122 Conn. 429, 189 A. 596, where it was held that money paid for an invalidated release should be credited on the verdict and that judgment was rightly entered only for the balance.

Doubtless it would have been proper for the Judge in his charge to have directed the jury, if it should find the release invalid, to deduct the release money from the damages to the plaintiff resulting from the decedent's injuries and death, and to return a verdict for the balance. Union Pacific Railway v. Harris, 158 U.S. 326, 333, 15 S.Ct. 843, 39 L.Ed. 1003. Not having done so in his charge prior to the verdict, it was proper in the situation here for the Judge to order the deduction after the verdict and to cause it to be reflected in an amended judgment. For not only did the verdict state the full amount of plaintiff's damages under F. E. L. A., but also it necessarily constituted an adjudication that the plaintiff held the $2500, concededly received for the release, for the defendant's benefit. The omission of this feature of the verdict from the judgment we think Judge Smith rightly held to be an error which might "be corrected by the court at any time * * *," under Fed.Rules Civ.Proc. rule 60(a), 28 U.S. C.A. We also agree that the defendant was entitled to relief from the incomplete judgment on the ground of mistake and inadvertence under Rule 60(b). On the facts as above stated, the defendant's "Motion De Satisfaction of Judgment" was filed within a reasonable time as required by Rule 60(b).

Affirmed.

FRANK, Circuit Judge (dissenting).

I think Seaboard Air Line Railroad Co. v. Gill, 4 Cir., 227 F.2d 64, 67 is directly in point. There a truck, driven by William Oliver Long, collided with the defendant's railroad train. The truck driver, his wife, Jessie Long, and her child, William Thomas Long, were killed. Gill, as administrator of the three, brought separate suits against the defendant; the suits were consolidated for trial. The defendant pleaded releases as a complete defense in each suit. At a first trial, the cases were submitted to the jury upon issues (1) as to the negligence of the Railroad Company, (2) the contributory negligence of the driver of the truck, (3) the understanding of Gill as to the nature and effect of the releases, and (4) the amount, if any, which the administrator was entitled to recover in each case. There was proof that the releases had been obtained by fraud or undue influence, and plaintiff asked the judge to instruct the jury accordingly, but the judge refused to do so. Instead, he told the jury that the question was whether plaintiff had executed the releases without understanding their effect. The jury found that the deceased persons were killed by negligence of the Railroad Company, that the driver of the truck was guilty of contributory negligence and his administrator was not entitled to recover anything, and that the administrator was entitled to recover $1,500 on account of the death of Mrs. Long and $2,500 on account of the death of her son. The judge set aside the verdicts, on the ground that the jury may have thought the releases were signed through a unilateral mistake of plaintiff and that, in such circumstances, the releases were valid under North Carolina "law." The judge entered judgment for the defendant. On appeal, the Fourth Circuit held that the judge had erred in refusing to give plaintiff's requested instruction concerning the releases. The court remanded for a new trial, as to the Jessie Long and William Thomas Long cases, on the sole issue of the validity of the releases. It said that if the jury, on that issue, should find in plaintiff's favor, judgments should be entered for him in these cases for the amounts specified in the previous verdicts. See Gill v. Seaboard Air Line Railroad Co., 4 Cir., 208 F.2d 7, 12. On the new trial, the jury found for the plaintiff, and the judge entered judgments of $1,500 in the one case and $2,500 in the other. But...