Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Callicotte

267 F. 799, 16 A.L.R. 386, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 2247
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJune 1, 1920
DocketNo. 5195
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 267 F. 799 (Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Callicotte) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Callicotte, 267 F. 799, 16 A.L.R. 386, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 2247 (8th Cir. 1920).

Opinion

BOOTH, District Judge.

This is a suit in equity seeking to enjoin the enforcement of a judgment at law and to set aside the judgment. The judgment was obtained by Callicotte against the railway company in the state circuit court of Buchanan county, Mo., for personal injuries received by him December 28, 1914, while an employé of the railway company. The salient points in the history of the litigation are as follows:

Action was commenced by Callicotte in the state court April 5, 1915. Verdict was rendered and judgment entered in his favor June 23, 1915. On August 7, 1915, a. motion for a new trial and a motion in arrest of judgment were made and overruled, and on the same day an appeal was allowed to the state Supreme Court. On December 6, 1916, the bill of complaint in the present case was filed in the District Court for the Western District of Missouri. On July 19, 1917, in the state court in which the personal injury case had been tried, a “motion for an order in the nature of an application for an order for a writ of error coram nobis” was made, by which it was sought to vacate and set aside the judgment of June 23, 1915, on'the ground that the judgment had been procured either through fraud or palpable mistake, or upon conjecture. On the same day this motion was overruled, and an appeal taken to the Supreme Court of Missouri from the order overruling the motion. September 25, 1917, upon the trial of the present suit in the United States District Court a decree was entered sustaining a demurrer by the defendant to the plaintiff’s evidence, and dismissing the bill. In May, 1918, decisions were rendered in the Supreme Court of the state of Missouri (204 S. W. 528; Id., 204 S .W. 529) affirming the judgment entered June 23, 1915, in the state circuit court of Buchanan county, and also affirming the order of said circuit court in overruling the motion of the railway company for a writ of error coram nobis.

In the complaint in .the case at bar plaintiff railway company alleges that Callicotte fraudulently and falsely pretended to receive injuries at the time of the accident which resulted in permanent paralysis [801]*801of his lower limbs; that at the time of the trial of the personal injury-case in the state court, and prior thereto, Callicotte, being aided by coconspirators, feigned paralysis of his lower limbs, and produced, or caused to be produced, an apparent paralysis of his lower limbs; that said feigned paralysis could not be detected by the usual and ordinary medical tests used for that purpose, although such tests were in fact made by the railway company; that Callicotte testified falsely at. the trial that said paralysis was genuine, and the result of personal injuries; that Callicotte after the accident, both before and for some time after the trial, kept himself secreted in his -house, so that his true condition should not be ascertained; that during said period he had perfect use of his lower limbs, and made use of them at will; that Callicotte and his coconspirators, by said fraudulent, deceitful, and feigned conduct, caused witnesses to falsely testify at the trial that his lower limbs were paralyzed; that Callicotte and his coconspirators caused him to he fraudulently exhibited to the jury at the trial as a hopeless paralytic; that the court and jury were fraudulently deceived and misled by these fraudulent acts of Callicotte, and by the false testimony of himself and others, who were induced to testify by the false and fraudulent acts of Callicotte; that by reason of the close and watchful care of Callicotte and his coconspirators the railway company was prevented from discovering his real condition, and did not discover it until about January 8, 1916.

The defendant, Callicotte, in his answer in the present suit denied that he had ever feigned paralysis or produced the same; denied that he had conspired to deceive the court, jury, or defendant railway, and denied that he had caused witnesses to testify falsely; denied that there was any false testimony on the trial on the part of himself or his own witnesses; alleged that the question of false testimony and the question of feigned paralysis were issues in the personal injury case tried. He also set up as defense, by way of adjudication, the proceedings by the railway company to obtain a writ of error coram nobis.

At the trial of the present suit in the lower court the plaintiff railway company introduced (1) a complete abstract of record in the personal injury case; (2) a transcript of the evidence given by Callicotte in a case entitled “State of Missouri vs. Callicotte,” tried in April, 1916; (3) oral testimony of numerous witnesses. At the close of the plaintiff’s case the defendant demurred to the evidence on the ground that the same failed to prove facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and, as has already been stated, the demurrer was sustained, and a decree entered dismissing the bill.

It becomes necessary, therefore, to determine (1) what facts were disclosed by the evidence; (2) whether those facts make a case for tire equitable relief demanded; (3) whether such relief can be afforded in the federal court.

[1] 1. Among the important facts which are established by the evidence are the following: That on the trial of the personal injury case testimony of plaintiff as to the history of his case was “that since a day or two after the accident, a period of more than six months, he had been completely paralyzed in his lower limbs; that he had no control [802]

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Bluebook (online)
267 F. 799, 16 A.L.R. 386, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 2247, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-r-i-p-ry-co-v-callicotte-ca8-1920.