Besse v. Burlington Northern, Inc.

79 F.R.D. 623, 3 Fed. R. Serv. 1085, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16379
CourtDistrict Court, D. Minnesota
DecidedJuly 25, 1978
DocketCiv. No. 4-75-148
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 79 F.R.D. 623 (Besse v. Burlington Northern, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Besse v. Burlington Northern, Inc., 79 F.R.D. 623, 3 Fed. R. Serv. 1085, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16379 (mnd 1978).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MaeLAUGHLIN, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court for consideration of plaintiff’s motion for a new trial on the issue of damages only or, in the alternative, for a new trial on all issues.

Plaintiff Gordon Besse brought suit against Burlington Northern, Inc., to recover damages allegedly sustained as a result of defendant’s negligence and defendant’s violation of the Federal Safety Appliance Act, 45 U.S.C.A. §§ 2, 51, 53. Trial was held from January 12 through 20, 1978. In its answers to the Special Verdict interrogatories the jury found that Gordon Besse was 371/2 percent causally negligent, that defendant Burlington Northern, Inc. was 621/2 percent causally negligent and that defendant violated the Federal Safety Appliance Act, causally contributing to plaintiff’s injuries. Judgment was rendered on the jury’s award of $225,000.00.

Plaintiff’s injuries arose out of an incident which occurred on March 26, 1975, in defendant’s switching yard in Grand Forks, North Dakota. At that time, Besse was employed by the Burlington Northern as a yard switchman. In the early morning of the day in question, Besse was working near track number 20 in the defendant’s yards. Besse alleges that one or more of the defendant’s railroad cars had defective couplers, which, among other things, required Besse to go between the railroad cars to operate the coupling devices. Besse asserts that when he was between the railroad cars, the employees of the railroad negligently caused and permitted him to be run over by several of the cars. As a result, Besse’s right leg had to be amputated below the knee’ and his left leg was injured.

Plaintiff now moves for a new trial on the grounds that prejudicial errors of law were- made during the course of the trial and that the damages are inadequate as a matter of law, having surrendered his contention that the amount of damages awarded by the jury is contrary to the clear weight of the evidence.

A new trial is appropriate only if manifest injustice results from an erroneous admission or exclusion of evidence or an error in the instruction of the jury. Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. v. Aalco Wrecking Co., Inc., 466 F.2d 179, 186 (8th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 930, 93 S.Ct. 1371, 35 L.Ed.2d 592 (1973).

Opinion Evidence as to Future Productivity Increases

Plaintiff first contends that the Court erred in refusing to permit his expert economist to testify as to his opinion of the productivity wage increases plaintiff would have enjoyed had he been able to continue working as a yard switchman for the railroad. In his Motion for New Trial, plaintiff states that his expert, Dr. Edward M. Foster, a Professor of Economics at the University of Minnesota, would testify that plaintiff would have received annual productivity wage increases of 2.9% and that such increases are clearly distinguishable from inflationary or cost-of-living increases. In the offer of proof at trial, plaintiff asserted that Dr. Foster would testify that plaintiff’s calculated earnings if he worked to the age of 65 would be increased by annual productivity wage increments of 2% on the basis of the record of annual productivity gains within the economy as a whole.

Dr. Foster did, in fact, testify as to what Besse’s future projected wage loss would be, based upon the assumption that Besse’s future average annual earnings as a switch-man would have been $18,006.00, even [625]*625though Besse had never earned an annual wage of more than $13,579.00 prior to the year of the accident.

This Court concludes that the evidence of future productivity increases, other than as Dr. Foster was allowed to testify that Besse’s future annual earnings as a switch-man would have reached $18,006.00, was properly excluded on the ground that it constituted a projection of future productivity gains for the economy as a whole, akin to opinion testimony of a mathematical projection of future inflationary trends, which is considered too speculative and conjectural to admit as evidence regarding loss of earnings. Johnson v. Serra, 521 F.2d 1289, 1293 (8th Cir. 1975). In this case particularly, there was no assurance that the proffered evidence had sufficient probative value to overcome the danger that it would influence the jury to assess damages on an improper basis. Id., Riha v. Jasper Blackburn Corp., 516 F.2d 840, 843-44 (8th Cir. 1975); Bach v. Penn Central Transportation Co., 502 F.2d 1117, 1122 (6th Cir. 1974). Dr. Foster intended to base his opinion of future productivity wage increases for a railroad yard switchman on the past performance of the economy as a whole. Yet no data was presented to the Court to demonstrate that there was any correlation between the past average annual productivity wage increases on a national level and productivity wage increases, if any, paid to defendant’s employees. Nor was any data disclosed to the Court establishing past productivity increases in the work of a Burlington Northern switchman which were reflected in his wages. Further, there was no verifying information concerning the predicted likelihood of future productivity gains in the work of a yard switchman, and no other basis for the assurance that there would be a future correlation between such gains and the wages of a switchman. Given the absence of a foundation to demonstrate the reliability of the evidence, it was properly excluded as too speculative and conjectural. See Riha v. Jasper Blackburn Corp., 516 F.2d at 843-44, n. 4, 845.

Instructions: Inflation and the Discount Rate

Plaintiff contends that the Court committed errors of law by refusing to instruct the jury in accordance with certain of plaintiff’s proposed instructions. The alleged errors essentially concern the question of the proper factors to be considered by the jury in measuring damages in a personal injury action brought under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act.

As background, it should be noted that during the trial plaintiff contended that his expert witness, Dr. Edward M. Foster, Professor of Economics, should be able to testify as to his prediction of future mathematically calculated annual trends of inflation. Plaintiff further urged the Court to permit Dr. Foster to testify that the return on the investment of a personal injury award would only exceed the inflation rate by 1% and that this 1% differential should be taken into account when the plaintiff’s damages were discounted to present value. It was anticipated by plaintiff that Dr. Foster’s testimony would follow the theory of his testimony discussed by the Minnesota Supreme Court in Ossenfort v. Associated Milk Producers, Inc., 254 N.W.2d 672, 683-84 (1977).

The proposed testimony was held to be clearly inadmissible due to its speculative and conjectural nature pursuant to the law of this Circuit set forth in Riha v. Jasper Blackburn Corp., 516 F.2d 840, 843-44, n. 4, 845 (8th Cir. 1975) and Johnson v. Serra, 521 F.2d 1289, 1293 (8th Cir. 1975).

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Bluebook (online)
79 F.R.D. 623, 3 Fed. R. Serv. 1085, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/besse-v-burlington-northern-inc-mnd-1978.