Smith v. Pressed Steel Tank Co.

66 F.R.D. 429, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13750
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 20, 1975
DocketCiv. A. Nos. 69-361, 69-509
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 66 F.R.D. 429 (Smith v. Pressed Steel Tank Co.) 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
Smith v. Pressed Steel Tank Co., 66 F.R.D. 429, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13750 (E.D. Pa. 1975).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

BRODERICK, District Judge.

This matter is presently before the Court on the plaintiffs’ Motion for a New Trial. After carefully considering the grounds urged by the plaintiffs in support of their motion for a new trial, the Court has determined that it must deny the motion.

The plaintiffs, both long-term employees of the defendant companies, Pressed Steel Tank Co. and Aqua-Chem, Inc., brought separate actions seeking to recover from the defendants for respiratory ailments allegedly caused and/or aggravated by fumes and dust prevalent in the defendants’ industrial plant while they were employed by the defendants. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants, who were successive owners of the premises and successive employers of the plaintiffs, were negligent in the maintenance of the premises where the plaintiffs worked. The plaintiffs’ cause of action was bottomed on the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Perez v. Blumenthal Bros. Chocolate Co., 428 Pa. 225, 237 A.2d 227 (1968), which recognized the right of an employee to maintain an action of trespass against his employer for the employer’s failure to protect the health and safety of his employee by exposing him to heavy dust causing aggravation of a pre-existing respiratory condition. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the employee’s action was not barred by the [432]*432Pennsylvania Occupational Disease Act, Pa.Stat. Title 77, § 1201 et seq.

The plaintiffs filed separate actions in this Court; however, the two actions being based on the same operative facts and legal principles, were consolidated and tried together. The issues of liability and damages, were severed and the liability portion of the consolidated trial was submitted to the jury on special interrogatories in accordance with Rule 49(a) F.R.Civ.P. In accordance with the jury’s answers to the special interrogatories, judgment on the issue of liability was entered in favor of the defendants and against both plaintiffs.

Within the mandatory ten-day period after entry of judgment, the plaintiffs moved for a new trial alleging in their motion nine specific grounds, as well as including in a closing paragraph of the motion a statement purporting to “reserve the right to add additional reasons for this new trial when the Notes of Testimony are transcribed.” After filing the motion, the plaintiffs filed a brief in which five specific grounds were argued, three of which were asserted in the motion and two of which were raised therein for the first time. After the notes of testimony were transcribed, the plaintiffs submitted a supplemental brief. In the supplemental brief, the plaintiffs argued three grounds for a new trial, only two of which were raised in the motion, the third being raised for the first time in the supplemental brief.

Our Third Circuit has held that a District Court is without authority to grant a new trial for reasons assigned after the ten-day limit of Rule 59(b) F. R.Civ.P. which provides that a motion for a new trial “shall be served not later than 10 days after the entry of the judgment.” Arkwright Mutual Ins. Co. v. Philadelphia Electric Co., 427 F.2d 1273 (3d Cir. 1970); Massaro v. United States Lines, 307 F.2d 299 (3d Cir. 1962). Moreover, the District Court is without authority to award a new trial for any additional reasons assigned after the ten-day limit of Rule 59(b) even where there is a statement in the motion which purports to reserve the right to file and specify additional grounds upon receipt of the transcript of testimony. Arkwright Mutual Ins. Co. v. Philadelphia Electric Co., supra, at 1275. The Court has, however, considered all of the grounds alleged by the plaintiffs even those which were untimely filed, and has determined that there is no basis for awarding a new trial. The Court will first consider the following eight alleged trial errors which were the only ones argued by the plaintiffs in their brief and supplemental brief:

(1) That the trial Court erred in rejecting plaintiffs’ requested point for charge No. 12, relating to the duty of defendants to provide plaintiffs with proper and adequate equipment; (2) That the Court erred in refusing to charge “that the nature of the risk which Plaintiffs had tó be said to assume in the instant case must be glaringly and obviously patent”; (3) That the Court erred in permitting defendants to question plaintiff Thompson in regard to pension benefits; (4) That the Court erred in ordering the testimony of plaintiffs’ doctor stricken; (5) That the Court erred in permitting defendants to question witnesses in regard to comparing the conditions of the premises of defendants’ plant with other plants; (6) That the Court somehow erred in connection with the peremptory challenges; (7) That the Court erred in admitting into evidence insurance forms which were executed by the plaintiffs; and, (8) That the Court erred in charging the jury on the defense of assumption of risk.

The first ground briefed by the plaintiffs in support of their motion for a new trial is that the trial Court erred in rejecting plaintiffs’ requested point for charge No. 12 which read:

If you find that the defendants did not provide the plaintiffs with suitable equipment, face masks and a [433]*433proper ventilating system in the said premises you may find that they were negligent and if you further find that their negligence permitted heavy concentrations of dust, fumes and smoke which caused the aggravation of plaintiffs’ pulmonary emphysema, and the plaintiffs were not guilty of contributory negligence and did not knowingly assume the risk of such harm, then your verdict should be in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendant [sic].

The plaintiffs do not attack the instructions which the Court gave to the jury. As a matter of fact the plaintiffs took only one exception to the charge and that one exception was limited to the words used by the Court in its charge on assumption of risk. The plaintiffs contend, however, that the failure to charge in the language of their requested point for charge No. 12 removed an essential issue from the jury’s determination, i. e., the duty of an employer to provide adequate and proper equipment to those working in the plant.

A party has no vested interest in any particular form of instruction; the language of the charge is for the Court to determine. The Court is not bound to give any instruction in the exact language submitted. If from the entire charge, read as a whole, it appears to the Court, as it does here, that the jury has been fairly and adequately instructed, then the requirements of the law are satisfied. Shaw v. Lauritzen, 428 F.2d 247 (3d Cir. 1970); Arkwright Mutual Ins. Co. v. Philadelphia Electric Co., 427 F.2d 1273 (3d Cir. 1970); Don Kemper Co. v. Beneficial Standard Life Ins. Co., 425 F.2d 221 (3d Cir. 1970); James v. Continental Insurance Co., 424 F.2d 1064 (3d Cir. 1970); Eberle Tanning Co. v. United States, 342 F.Supp. 1039 (M.D.Pa.1972); Sleek v. J. C. Penney Co., Inc., 208 F.Supp. 207 (W.D.Pa.1962).

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Bluebook (online)
66 F.R.D. 429, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13750, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-pressed-steel-tank-co-paed-1975.