Dunn v. Ove Skou Rederi A/S

45 F.R.D. 18, 12 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1288, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12715
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 22, 1968
DocketCiv. A. No. 35045
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 45 F.R.D. 18 (Dunn v. Ove Skou Rederi A/S) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dunn v. Ove Skou Rederi A/S, 45 F.R.D. 18, 12 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1288, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12715 (E.D. Pa. 1968).

Opinion

OPINION

KRAFT, District Judge.

The plaintiff, a longshoreman, recovered a verdict against the defendant-shipowner for $10,000 in his personal injury action based upon claims of unseaworthiness and negligence. In the third-party indemnity action, the jury, in answer to special interrogatories1, [20]*20concluded that the stevedore breached its warranty of workmanlike service and that that breach proximately caused the injuries to the plaintiff. The jury also found that the shipowner had breached its contract with the stevedore.

Judgments were entered upon the special verdicts, in favor of the plaintiff and against the shipowner in the initial action and in favor of the stevedore and against the shipowner in the third-party action.

A motion for new trial, limited to the issue of damages, has been filed by the plaintiff. A motion has been filed by the shipowner for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or to reopen the judgment in favor of the stevedore for additional findings of fact under F.R. Civ.P. No. 49, or, alternatively, for a new trial.

Pursuant to express leave, granted by the Court to the plaintiff and the shipowner, only the particular portions of the record, including the full charge of the Court, which have been put in issue by the respective motions, have been transcribed.2

We consider initially the plaintiff’s motion for new trial, which raises the following three alleged trial errors on the part of the trial judge: (1) the Court erred in excluding from evidence Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 8, a hospital record; (2) the Court’s comment, in its charge, upon the failure of the plaintiff to produce witnesses who observed the plaintiff’s alleged “blackout”, while appearing in a hiring “shape up” on the waterfront, was not tempered by a similar comment upon the defendant’s failure to produce such witnesses; (3) the Court erred in the admission into evidence of certain averments made by the plaintiff in an unrelated complaint, filed in a prior personal injury action, that he had then suffered a total permanent industrial and economic loss.

Plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 8, a hospital record of the Albert Einstein Hospital, was excluded, on objection, from the jury’s inspection because it contained, on one sheet of paper, a diagnosis made by an unidentified person as well as a statement purportedly made to that person by another person, likewise unidentified and having no connection with the hospital, that the plaintiff, had in fact, blacked out. The amount of the charges and the dates of the treatment set forth in the hospital record were admitted in evidence.

Plaintiff argues that the hospital record was admissible in its entirety, despite the fact that the history taken regarding the alleged blackout was given not by the plaintiff, but by an unidentified stranger, purportedly a longshoreman, who accompanied plaintiff to the hospital.

Plaintiff contends that the Federal Business Records Statute, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1732, gives a carte blanche approval to all entries on a record made in the regular course of business of the hospital and that every entry so admissible has probative value, the weight, but not the [21]*21admissibility, of which may be affected by the circumstances.

There was no question that the proffered record came from the files of the hospital, but no evidence was offered to establish that an authorized physician or intern, employed by the hospital, made the diagnosis recorded on the document. Moreover, there was no evidence to establish that the unidentified stranger had either the knowledge or the authority to make the statement set forth in the record. Dilley v. Chesapeake & Ohio Rwy. Co., 327 F.2d 249 (6 Cir. 1964).

A record is not deemed admissible under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1732 unless it first be shown that an identified physician, in the regular course of his business as an employee of the hospital, made the record. Masterson v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 182 F.2d 793, 797 (3 Cir. 1950).

We turn now to the second ground. It cannot be gainsaid that a federal judge is permitted to comment upon the evidence and express his opinion, provided he submits all matters of fact ultimately to the jury’s consideration and informs them that they are not bound by his opinion.3 Quercia v. United States, 289 U.S. 466, 53 S.Ct. 698, 77 L. Ed. 1321 (1933); United States v. Garber, 383 F.2d 448 (3 Cir. 1967); United States v. Stayback, 212 F.2d 313 (3 Cir. 1954)..

The plaintiff had the burden to prove that the claimed blackout in January of 1964 was attributable to the accident in suit, which occurred on June 13, 1963. Plaintiff claimed to have been in a “shape up” with many of his fellow-longshoremen, some of whom would have witnessed such an incident, but not one was called by the plaintiff to corroborate his testimony.

“ * * * Failure to produce informed and competent witnesses militates most strongly against the party having the burden of proof * * Bayout v. Bayout, 373 Pa. 549, 555, 556, 96 A.2d 876 (1953)

Our comment in this regard was fair and warranted by the evidence.

The final ground advanced by the plaintiff is devoid of merit. He put in issue and sought damages for a claimed diminution of future earning capacity; based upon his injuries arising from the accident of June 13, 1963. Defendant sought to impeach this claim by offering in evidence plaintiff’s earlier claim of total economic and industrial loss, as set forth in an unrelated complaint filed by the plaintiff for personal injuries resulting from a prior injury in 1955. Defendant also offered evidence to show that plaintiff was working more hours and earning more income after the June 13, 1963 accident than before.

[22]*22The evidence was relevant and material to a fair determination of the plaintiff’s claim of loss or diminution of future earning capacity. Our charge4 discussed this issue only in light of the evidence and the respective contentions of the parties.

We are of the opinion that, under all the evidence, the damages recovered by the plaintiff were fair, reasonable and adequate and that no prejudicial error occurred which requires a new trial of the damage issue.

We turn our attention next to the motion of the third-party plaintiff. As noted earlier, the jury concluded that the stevedore’s breach of its warranty of workmanlike service was a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries. However, the jury also answered affirmatively, interrogatory number 5, which read as follows:

“Did the third-party plaintiff (shipowner), acting through its officers and employees, (including the mates and crew) breach any of the shipowner’s obligations under its contract with the third-party defendant (Luckenbach) ? ” 5 (emphasis ours)

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45 F.R.D. 18, 12 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1288, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12715, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dunn-v-ove-skou-rederi-as-paed-1968.