Savino Dagnello v. Long Island Rail Road Company

289 F.2d 797, 4 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 964, 1961 U.S. App. LEXIS 5020
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMarch 24, 1961
Docket173, Docket 26453
StatusPublished
Cited by237 cases

This text of 289 F.2d 797 (Savino Dagnello v. Long Island Rail Road Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Savino Dagnello v. Long Island Rail Road Company, 289 F.2d 797, 4 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 964, 1961 U.S. App. LEXIS 5020 (2d Cir. 1961).

Opinion

MEDINA, Circuit Judge.

On March 26, 1959 Savino Dagnello, a yard brakeman in the employ of appellant Long Island Rail Road Company had his left leg amputated when it was run over by two freight cars in the railroad’s Pitkin Avenue Yard in Brooklyn, New York. Negligence on the part of the railroad was conceded, and the case went to the jury on the issues of contributory negligence and the amount of the damages to be assessed. The jury rendered a verdict against the railroad for $130,-500. Although not requested to do so, the jury of its own volition, but closely following the various elements of damage discussed in Judge Weinfeld’s charge, set forth the items of damage as follows, deducting 10% for contributory negligence:

1. Loss of salary to date......$ 10,000

2. Compensation for amount of salary he may forego because of injury — $38,000 at 4%%, $1710 per year...... 38,000

3. Compensation for pain and suffering and loss of limb.. 97,000

Total Settlement........$145,000

Less 10%.............. 14,500

$130,500

The only point argued before us is that the trial judge abused his discretion in refusing to order a new trial, or direct a remittitur, on the sole ground that the $97,000 awarded for “pain and suffering and loss of limb” was too high.

In limine appellee challenges our power to consider this question. Moreover, the facts of this case are such as to present the problem in its simplest form. The atmosphere of the trial was precisely what it should have been. There were no incidents, or appeals to prejudice or passion to play upon the sympathy of the jury. The evidence was amply sufficient to warrant a finding of liability. If there was any abuse of discretion in the refusal of the trial judge to set aside the verdict, it was solely because the amount of the verdict was too high. But appellee argues that, in the absence of some erroneous ruling on matters of evidence or in the instructions to the jury, or some indication that the trial judge thought he lacked power to set aside the verdict for excessiveness, or something to show that the verdict was the result of passion or prejudice or bias on the part of the jury, we lack power to review the alleged abuse of discretion by the trial judge in refusing to set aside the verdict for mere ex-cessiveness. Appellee insists that our power of review is limited to questions of law and that, if we were to hold it was an abuse of discretion to refuse to set aside the verdict, we would be deciding a question of fact, or “personal discretion,” and not a question of law, in violation of the Seventh Amendment.

While the intermediate appellate courts of the States and in most instances the State courts of last resort

*799 have for many years exercised the power we are said to lack, 1 in the federal system the subject has been one of seemingly endless controversy. Our own decisions *800 on the point have not been consistent. Compare, e. g., Powers v. Wilson, 2 Cir., 1940, 110 F.2d 960, with Comiskey v. Pennsylvania R. R., 2 Cir., 1956, 228 F. 2d 687, 688. Indeed, Professor Moore classifies us with the Eighth Circuit as “the most adamant expounders” of the “old doctrine of non-reviewability of decisions on motions for a new trial based on the inadequacy or excessiveness of the damages.” Moore’s Federal Practice, Vol. 6, p. 3834. Curiously enough, most of the cases make no reference whatever to the Seventh Amendment.

We hold that the question at issue is within our competency to decide and we shall state in some detail the reasons we think support this conclusion.

The Supreme Court Cases

The Supreme Court cases would seem to indicate that the power exists, see Bainbrich v. Hammond Iron Works, 10 Cir., 1957, 249 F.2d 348, 349, but there is no clear and unequivocal holding to that effect. Old limitations based upon appeals by writ of error, and the fact that the motion for a new trial was not part of the trial record at common law and could not be included in the bill of exceptions, 2 have long since been eliminated by changes in the applicable statutes and rules, and more enlightened views vis-a-vis procedural obstacles. See Federal Rules Civ.Proc., Rule 75, 28 U.S.C.A.; Fairmount Glass Works v. Cub Fork Coal Co., 1933, 287 U.S. 474, 482, 53 S.Ct. 252, 77 L.Ed. 439; Harrison v. United States, 2 Cir., 1925, 7 F.2d 259, 262.

Counsel for Dagnello rely strongly upon some general language in the opinion of Mr. Justice Brandeis in Fairmount Glass Works v. Cub Fork Coal Co., 1933, 287 U.S. 474, at pages 481-482, 53 S.Ct. 252, at page 254, but the opinion expressly disclaims, at page 485, 53 S.Ct. at page 255, any flat decision of the question of power now before us. There had been a verdict of $1 for plaintiff, and it was claimed that, even allowing for the maximum due to defendant on its counterclaim, there would still be a balance of $18,500 due to plaintiff, if there was any liability on the part of defendant to plaintiff. As we read the opinion, and as other courts have construed it, 3 the decision rested upon the supposition that the jury may well have found for defendant, and have expressed themselves in terms of a verdict of $1 for plaintiff because (287 U.S. at page 484, 53 S.Ct. at page 255) “the jury wished the costs to be taxed against the defendant.” Mr. Justice Stone and Mr. Justice Cardozo dissented and took the position that the verdict must be regarded as for plaintiff on the subject of liability and that it was, as matter of law, inadequate.

The next case, Affolder v. New York, C. & St. L. R.R., 339 U.S. 96, at page 101, 70 S.Ct. . 509, at page 511, 94 L.Ed. 683, decided in 1950, has been relied upon by some courts in favor of the power of review, 4 because the opinion of Mr. Jus *801 tice Clark states, “We agree with the Court of Appeals that the amount of damages awarded by the District Court’s judgment is not monstrous in the circumstances of this case,” citing Barry v. Edmunds, 1886, 116 U.S. 550, 6 S.Ct. 501, 29 L.Ed. 729, from which it appears that the word “monstrous” comes from the old English case of Beardmore v. Carrington, 2 Wilson K. B. 244, 95 Eng. Rep. 790, 793, decided in 1764.

In Affolder the amount of the verdict was $95,000, and on the motion to set aside the verdict the trial judge granted a remittitur of $15,000, which was accepted by plaintiff.

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Bluebook (online)
289 F.2d 797, 4 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 964, 1961 U.S. App. LEXIS 5020, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/savino-dagnello-v-long-island-rail-road-company-ca2-1961.