Town of East Troy v. Soo Line R. Co.
| Decision Date | 05 September 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 75-C-122.,75-C-122. |
| Citation | 476 F. Supp. 252 |
| Parties | TOWN OF EAST TROY, Plaintiff, v. SOO LINE RAILROAD COMPANY, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Wisconsin |
John P. Graves, Jr., Rockford, Ill., for plaintiff.
Reginald W. Nelson, Whyte & Hirschboeck, Milwaukee, Wis., for defendant.
DECISION and ORDER
This action is before me on the alternative post-trial motions of the defendant Soo Line Railroad for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, for an alteration in the judgment, and for a new trial. All of these motions will be denied.
This action arose out of the derailment of one of the railroad's trains in the town of East Troy in July, 1974. The plaintiffs alleged that the derailment caused carbolic acid manufactured by Georgia Pacific to leak from Soo Line's railway tanker car, resulting in the contamination of the water wells and septic systems of many individuals residing in the Lake Beulah area of the town.
Prior to trial, the individual plaintiffs settled their claims and the defendant Georgia Pacific was dismissed from the suit, leaving the town and the railroad as the only parties at trial. The town's allegations included a claim that the railroad was negligent in several respects. Such negligence allegedly produced a public nuisance in the form of water pollution and septic system contamination to the prejudice of the "health, comfort, safety and property of certain of the residents, school children, property owners, taxpayers, tourists and guests of the plaintiff town . . .." Subsequent to the derailment and consequent contamination, the town undertook the function of furnishing water to residents of the Lake Beulah area who had previously obtained water from private wells. In this suit the town sought in excess of 1 million dollars in damages for the cost of the new water system and for other miscellaneous expenses it incurred as a result of the acid spill.
Following nine days of trial, the jury found that the railroad was negligent with regard to the operation of the train and the maintenance of the tracks in question and that this negligence was a proximate cause of a public nuisance. The jury also found that $500,000 would reasonably compensate the town for "any damages it reasonably incurred as a result of the derailment and phenol acid spill." Judgment in that amount was entered in favor of the plaintiff on June 14, 1979.
The defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict is based on two contentions: (1) that any expenses incurred by the plaintiff do not constitute injuries peculiar to the town of East Troy within the meaning of § 823.01, Wis.Stats., and (2) that the entire amount of expenses incurred by the town was covered by a grant made to the town by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. In connection with the railroad's pretrial motions, I considered and rejected these arguments in a written decision and order dated April 5, 1979. Since I find no reason to change the conclusion reached in that decision, the railroad's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict will be denied.
I note that subsequent to my decision of April 5, 1979, a decision has been rendered which supports my conclusion that the collateral source doctrine applies to funds given to a plaintiff by a government agency. In Roundhouse v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 604 F.2d 990 (6th Cir. 1979), the plaintiff fish farmers were forced to destroy sick fish sold to them by the defendant. The court held that compensation received by the plaintiffs from the state of Michigan did not justify reducing the plaintiffs' recovery from the defendant, since under the collateral source doctrine, money received from an independent source will not diminish recovery from a wrongdoer.
The defendant railroad has moved the court to change the answer to question 6 of the special verdict by striking the answer $500,000 and inserting instead an amount not in excess of $125,000. The railroad contends that the plaintiff failed to introduce sufficient evidence to justify greater damages and that as a result, the jury's answer was based on speculation and conjecture. I disagree.
The spilling of a dangerous acid which contaminated the water table in East Troy required that the town take difficult remedial action. In the course of taking such action, the town retained the services of a myriad of professionals: engineers, planners, excavators, chemists, attorneys, geologists, plumbers and hydrogeologists, among others.
With regard to the compensation of these people as well as other expenses incurred by the town, the plaintiff introduced a substantial quantum of evidence at trial. The plaintiff introduced bills, cancelled checks demonstrating the payment of those bills, and itemized statements indicating the type of work done by different people, the amount of time spent on such work, and the rate of compensation charged for the work. One of the engineers who spent time working for the town testified as to the reasonableness of the fees he charged, which were the highest of any charged by engineers working on the acid spill. Finally, several witnesses testified as to the remedial steps that were taken by the town. The railroad did not introduce any evidence indicating that the professional fees in this case were unreasonable. In my opinion, this evidence was sufficient to allow the jury to make a rational judgment as to the reasonableness of the expenses incurred by the town. Moreover, I find that the figure of $500,000 arrived at by the jury was adequately supported by the evidence.
The defendants rely on two arguments in challenging the jury's findings as to damages. They briefly argue that at least one of the engineering firms retained by the town made recommendations of action which either were not followed or were ultimately abandoned. On this basis, the defendant suggests that some of the expenses incurred by the plaintiff were "unnecessary." The damage to East Troy's water supply which the jury found resulted from the railroad's negligence required remedial action, the course of which was not clear even to experts. The town was entitled to compensation for expenses incurred as a result of reasonable remedial steps, even if by hind-sight some of those steps may have been missteps. Since the railroad has not demonstrated that any of the approaches taken by the town or its experts were unreasonable, the town is entitled to the compensation it received from the jury.
The railroad also argues that Wisconsin law requires that the reasonableness of the fees charged by professionals retained by the town could not be established except by expert testimony as to that subject. The railroad's position is supported by neither law nor logic. None of the cases relied on by the defendant overturned a jury's finding as to damages which was based on reasonable evidence. In two of the cases, the Wisconsin supreme court overturned jury verdicts in which the jury had apparently ignored the uncontradicted testimony of experts regarding the value of professional services. Estate of Watzek, 211 Wis. 50, 247 N.W. 330 (1933); Brust v. First National Bank, 184 Wis. 15, 198 N.W. 749 (1924). In the third case, a finding by the trial judge of the value of professional services was overturned by the supreme court when it found no evidence in the record to support the trial judge's finding. Tullgren v. Karger, 173 Wis. 288, 181 N.W. 232 (1921).
None of the foregoing cases requires the conclusion that a jury finding regarding the value of professional services, which is in fact supported by substantial evidence, must be overturned simply because an expert has not testified regarding the reasonableness of the fees charged by each professional. Moreover, the defendant's contention regarding Wisconsin law is refuted by the case of Gerbing v. McDonald, 201 Wis. 214, 229 N.W. 860 (1930), in which the court stated:
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