De Vito v. Hoffman

• Decision Date: 16 October 1952
• Docket Number: No. 11017.,11017.
• Citation: 199 F.2d 468
• Parties: DE VITO et al. v. HOFFMAN.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

199 F.2d 468 (1952)

DE VITO et al. v. HOFFMAN.

No. 11017.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued April 23, 1952.

Decided October 16, 1952.

David F. Smith, Washington, D. C., with whom Dorsey K. Offutt, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellants.

Cornelius H. Doherty, Washington, D. C., for appellee.

Before CLARK, PRETTYMAN and FAHY, Circuit Judges.

CLARK, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, entered after a jury denied appellants recovery in claims for damages allegedly sustained at the hands of appellee, and from a ruling of the court that the statute of limitations barred appellant husband's claim for damages due to an alleged assault upon him by appellee.

As originally filed, this was an action by husband and wife in which the wife claimed that appellee had assaulted her, with resulting injuries, and the husband claimed damages for loss of his wife's services. In his answer, appellee filed a counterclaim for damages, alleging that appellant husband had assaulted him at the time of the events giving rise to this litigation. The jury found against appellee's counterclaim, and no appeal has been taken from the judgment on that part of the proceedings.

In her appeal, the wife contends that the court failed to instruct the jury properly as to the nature of an assault and regarding the legal basis upon which she might recover. The husband contends that the court erred in permitting appellee to attack the validity of his marriage. In addition, the husband contends that the court erred when it sustained appellee in his defense that the statute of limitations barred appellant husband's claim for damages due to assault.

At pre-trial hearing, appellant husband was granted leave to amend to assert a claim for damages due to an alleged assault upon him by appellee during the melee which lies behind these claims. He then filed a pleading denominated "supplemental complaint", but this purely procedural matter of denomination will not be permitted to interfere with the determination of substantive rights, and the pleadings will be so construed as to do substantial justice. The "supplemental complaint" was in reality a counterclaim to the counterclaim filed by appellee, and we will so regard it.

When appellee filed his counterclaim, the statute of limitations was tolled regarding the events or occurrence upon which his claim was founded, and it was a reasonable exercise of discretion, under the provisions of Rule 13(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. when the court granted appellant husband leave to amend, since his claim was founded upon the same occurrence as that which supported appellee's claim. Inasmuch as the statute of limitations had been tolled, the court erred in its ruling that the statute barred appellant husband's claim.

We now turn to the contentions of appellants concerning the wife's action for damages due to assault and the husband's action for loss of his wife's services. As stated above, the wife contends that the court failed to instruct the jury properly as to the nature of an assault, but with that contention we cannot agree.

The court's instruction to the jury was clear and adequate, and from our examination of the record we find that the verdict was one which the jury might reasonably have reached upon the evidence before it. We will therefore leave the verdict as it stands unless there was error in the admission of evidence, or in the conduct of the trial.

Both appellants place great stress upon what they claim was error when the court permitted appellee to attack the validity of their marriage by undertaking a collateral attack upon a divorce obtained by appellant...