Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Northern Pacific Terminal Co.

17 F.R.D. 52, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4166
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedApril 23, 1954
DocketCiv. A. No. 1686
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 17 F.R.D. 52 (Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Northern Pacific Terminal Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Northern Pacific Terminal Co., 17 F.R.D. 52, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4166 (D. Or. 1954).

Opinion

JAMES ALGER FEE, Chief Judge.

This action was brought by Wards to recover damages against fifty-seven common carriers for failure to receive from, transport, and deliver goods to Wards’ strikebound Portland establishment during an eight months period. There was a complaint filed in this case which this Court has held to be technically sufficient under the system of pleading in use in the state courts of Oregon. Motions against the complaint were reserved. An answer was filed, the motions against which were likewise reserved for decision. Many of the defenses set up by the various defendants have now been held insufficient.1

It was quite apparent that the complicated questions raised by the pleadings should be decided against a background of actual proven or agreed facts, rather than upon the respective statements by the lawyers in the pleadings .as to assumed situations of fact. Jury trial had been demanded and it was ■estimated by the attorneys that from ■eighteen months to two years would be required for such a trial. In view of these considerations, the Court directed that the lawyers go as far as possible ■toward simplifying the issues so that .a jury could comprehend the questions which were to be contested.

It was also of note at the outset that there would necessarily be tremendous outlays of time, energy and money in preparation for the trial, whatever procedure was followed.

It will be objected by the theorists who have never tried a case that the time involved, which from the filing of the complaint to the end of the trial, was eight years, seven months and eleven days, was unconscionable. But such a criticism takes no cognizance of the tremendous difficulties involved; The attorneys spent six years in drafting pleadings, taking depositions and collecting documents and other material. Thereafter, they spent approximately thirty-six months in continuous conference, observing court hours and sessions. There were seventeen days of formal pretrial conferences in court and an additional twenty-two days of continuous formal conference just before the pretrial order was presented for signing. These conferences were in open court and the written transcripts thereof were of inestimable value in drawing the order. The open court pretrial hearings were actually a part of the case and were conducted in the same manner as a trial.

The attorneys for the respective parties entered into the task of making the issues understandable with commendable earnestness. No mechanical process was involved, but rather the highest degree of skill, ingenuity and ethical devotion of counsel to the interests of their respective clients. To each of these lawyers, the Court pays the highest tribute for their professional zeal and ethical conduct in this fierce contest involving the whole economic structure of our time.

The lawyers have agreed upon a statement of the major objectives of the process:

“The new Federal Rules [28 U.S.C.] permit, and perhaps en[54]*54courage, the formation of issues outside of the pleadings. This presupposes the framing of issues after the pleadings have been completed. On the other hand, the issues must be framed before trial; for the sole purpose of the trial is to determine issues. Therefore, one of the major purposes of pre-trial in the Ward case, as we conceived it, was the determination of what was at issue. Normally, the issues of fact cannot be stated until the parties have agreed, so far as possible, on stipulations of fact and have stated their contentions as to all facts on which they cannot agree.”

The process whereby the controversy was defined, along the lines set up in the formal pleadings, was by the use of the doctrine of judicial admission or, in other words, by admissions as to fact and law made by the attorneys in open court. The lawyers here fought hard to obtain exact admissions from the other side; they did not agree under the pressure of judicial thumbscrews. Most of the difficulty was with the accurate statement of the issues of law and of fact, even when all the related circumstances had been plotted by depositions, documents and admissions.

In these circumstances, the judge cannot and should not attempt to prepare for the lawyers. He cannot organize their knowledge or their evidence. But he is responsible for the fact that no unnecessary delay be granted during extended proceedings and he can insist that before a case goes to trial the issues are in a form understandable to him.

This case was tried to the Court in nine days. It could well have been tried by a jury.

Certain questions as to the adequacy of the pretrial order, its consistency, and the binding nature thereof, although not raised by the parties, seem to the Court to require a review of the entire order before the drafting of the findings of fact and conclusions of law in order that there be no misunderstanding of the basis of the final judgment.

It will be seen that in this vast document2 prepared by the attorneys the cause of action of plaintiff is sharply delineated by its contentions based upon agreed facts. This is an extension of the formal complaint which, as the Court has already held, states a cause of action. There is then a solid basis for the entry of judgment, depending on what facts and law are found established. The issues of fact and law are accurately segregated. The claims and defenses of each individual carrier defendant are segregated with great care as to fact and law. Likewise, defenses in which several carriers join are so defined. When judgment is entered, the area of adjudication and finality will be conclusively marked.

The controversy over the measure of damages highlights the proper function-of the pretrial order. It is contended on the one hand by plaintiff that, since-liability has been found against each defendant, all are liable jointly and severally for all elements of damage and loss caused to plaintiff, even though other parties not joined as defendants-may have contributed thereto. The defendants on the other hand postulate, that no damages are recoverable at all because, it is said, so many other elements enter into the situation that defendants cannot be responsible for vague- and indefinite claims of loss of earnings, and profits. Each of these positions is-erroneous, although each contains some modicum of truth.

It has long been the position of the-theorist that a party should not be-bound by the theory of the case which-he has adopted. Such a proposition re[55]*55moves the rational basis of an action at law. An unrelated group of allegations or fácts, or the transcript of a series of depositions, or even a series of admissions, has no vitality unless there is some correlation in virtue of a rule of law which predicates liability of the defendant. Similarly, defenses have like limitations.

One of the principal purposes of a pretrial order of the definitive type such as we have here is to make specific the legal theories and contentions of fact upon which each of the parties is proceeding. This feature makes the controversy pragmatically justiciable. The opposed propositions furnish syllogistic organization for solution by judicial opinion or judgment, albeit the propositions of fact may be arrived at by synthesis which depends upon deduction or perhaps intuition.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
17 F.R.D. 52, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4166, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/montgomery-ward-co-v-northern-pacific-terminal-co-ord-1954.