McGhee v. McCarley

103 F. 55, 44 C.C.A. 252, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 3851

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Decided: May 22, 1900
• Docket: No. 763
• Status: Published

Opinions

PARLANGE, District Judge.

This cause was fully stated when it was first passed upon by this court. See 91 Fed. 462. An application for rehearing having been made by the defendant in error, and the same having been granted, the cause has been fully reargued, and the court has again carefully considered it. The single error heretofore found by this court in the cause was that the trial court refused to charge the jury that only compensatory, and not punitive, damages were recoverable in the cause. On the first hearing of this cause the argument and the briefs treated very imperfectly, and in an unintentionally misleading manner, the matter of the statute law upon which this cause was based. Assisted by the argument and briefs on the rehearing, the court has carefully re-examined the point upon which it ordered this cause to be remanded, and has concluded that the statute law of Alabama permits a personal representative to recover punitive damages in such a cause as the one at bar, and that therefore it is not within the doctrine of Railway Co. v. Prentice, 147 U. S. 101, 13 Sup. Ct. 261, 37 L. Ed. 97. See, specially, Tiff. Death Wrongful Act, §§ 130, 154; also, Id. § 35. The court has also re-examined the other questions involved in this cause, and finds no error in the cause. It is therefore ordered that the former order of this court, reversing the judgment of the lower court and remanding this cause for a new trial, be, and the same is hereby, annulled and set aside. It is further ordered that the judgment of the lower court be, and the same is hereby, affirmed.