Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company v. Deen
Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company v. Deen
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
By our opinion delivered May 7, 1958, (158 Texas 466, 312
In the same proceeding we denied the plaintiff Deen, who was also a petitioner, any relief against the above-mentioned action of the Court of Civil Appeals in requiring a remmititur as a condition of its affirmance of the trial court judgment.
From our judgment the plaintiff Deen sought relief in the Supreme Court of the United States by (1) mandamus “requiring the Supreme Court of Texas to vacate its judgment rendered on May 7, 1958, in this cause and requiring the said Supreme Court of Texas to render a judgment and decree sustaining and affirming the judgment of the trial court rendered April 12, 1954, subject to a remittitur in the sum of $55000.00, but without prejudice to Deen’s right to seek review of such remittitur * * * by Petition for Writ of Certiorari * * and (2) writ of certiorari to review our mentioned judgment in all respects in which it was unfavorable to the plaintiff Deen, including our rejection of his complaint against the requirement of remittitur by the Court of Civil Appeals. In the Supreme Court of the United States the mandamus proceeding was given the number 113 Mise., and the certiorari proceeding number 187, October Term, 1958. (358 U.S. 874, 79 Sup. Ct. Ill, 3 L. Ed. 2d 105.
Under date of October 27, 1958, the relief sought by mandamus was in effect granted, as evidenced by the Court’s per curiam opinion of that date,
Pursuant to the action of the Supreme Court of the United States in the mandamus proceeding, it is our duty to withdraw our previous judgment and render a new decision conformably to the decision of that Court. Our above-mentioned decision and judgment of May 7, 1958, are accordingly revoked, except in so far as they refused to disturb the action of the Court of Civil Appeals in requiring the remittitur; and judgment is now rendered in favor of the plaintiff, subject to said remittitur, all as more fully hereinafter provided.
By motion, the plaintiff prays that we not only affirm the latter judgment in respect to its having upheld a recovery in his favor, but also modify said judgment to the extent of eliminating the remittitur therein required. As to this, it is enough to say that, since we have heretofore decided, as above stated, that the Court of Civil Appeals had the power to require the remittitur, and since the above described action of the Supreme Court of the United States conspicuously forbears to disturb this part of our decision, but, on the contrary, denies the writ of certiorari wherein the plaintiff sought to review it, we must decline to reconsider the question on its merits.
It is therefore ordered that the planitiff Earl R. Deen do have and recover of the defendant, Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company and the sureties on its supersedeas bond, to wit, T. W. Lain and R. K. Hutchings, jointly and severally, the principal sum of $15,950.00, with interest thereon at the rate of
Opinion delivered November 19, 1958.
— “No. 133 Misc. DEEN v. HICKMAN.
“Per Curiam: In Deen v. Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe R. Co., 353 U.S. 925,
Mr. Justice Stewart took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. October 27, 1958.” 358 U.S. 57, 79 Sup. Ct. 1, 3 L. Ed. 2d 28.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The per curiam opinion by the United States Supreme Court rendered on October 27, 1958, conclusively forecloses the question of remittitur against the petitioner. The majority seems to attach considerable significance to the action of the Supreme Court in denying relief by certiorari. I think the majority has again misconstrued the opinion of the Supreme Court just as this Court misconstrued the opinion in Deen v. Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe R. Co., 358 U.S. 925. The majority still overlooks the fact that this is a case brought under the Federal Employers Liability Act. The Congress provided by the adoption of such Act that the jury would determine the damages. The Act provides for what we commonly call comparative negligence. In other words, the Act provides that in assessing the damages in the event of negligence, etc., on the part of the defendant, the damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to the employee. See 45 U.S.C.A., Sec. 53, Apr. 1908, c. 149, Sec. 3, 35 Stat. 66.
To allow a remittitur would nullify a material portion of the Act. It, no doubt, was the intention of the Congress to place the power of evaluating evidence solely with the jury. The per curiam opinion unquestionably, although it did not expressly hold, intended to foreclose any action by this Court or the Court of Civil Appeals, except to require that judgment be entered for Deen in accordance with the jury verdict. The opinion expressly reverses the action of this Court wherein the case was remanded to the Court of Civil Appeals with directions to adjudicate, upon its own independent evaluation of the evidence and wholly apart from the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States, whether or not the jury finding of negligence" of the defendant is so against the weight and preponderance of the evidence as to require a new trial in the interest of justice, and, upon the basis of its adjudication, to either affirm the judgment of the trial court or grant a new trial. I am now convinced that all issues have been foreclosed and that this litigation should come to an end. The matter can be expedited by following what seems to me to have been the clear intent of the United States Supreme Court. See Pennell v. B. & O. R. R. Co., 13 Ill. App. 2d 433, 142 N.E. 2d 497. To consider the question of remittitur necessarily would require evaluating evidence and reviewing the weight of the evidence. The last cited case dealt with the problem, and, in holding against the contention of the petitioner in the instant case, said, in part:
“* * * To consider this issue would necessarily require reviewing the weight of the evidence since it is obvious there is an evidentiary basis for a substantial verdict. The recent case of Neese v. Southern Railway Company, 350 U.S. 77, 76 Sup. Ct. 131, 100 L. Ed. 60, lends support to this view. In that case, the Court of Appeals determined in a carefully considered and actuarially supported opinion that the verdict was excessive. The Supreme Court in a per curiam opinion, simply concluded that the record supported the jury’s verdict and reversed the Court of Appeals. While there was no clarifying discussion of the scope of review of the issue of excessiveness of the verdict in intermediate appellate courts, the result reached indicates the view of the Supreme Court on such issue. In addition, our examination of the cases reaching the U.S. Supreme Court touching on the issue of excessiveness of the verdict reveals no objective*243 criteria against which an intermediate appellate court might weigh the exercise of discretion by the trial court in handling such issue. Nor has the Congress defined the outer limits of recovery in such cases. Therefore, in the light of the Harsh case, and in the absence of any approved standards or criteria by which a verdict may be adjudged either reasonable or excessive or so large as to indicate prejudice of the jury, this court cannot determine the trial court’s treatment of this issue to be erroneous.”
I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Opinion delivered November 19, 1958.
Rehearing overruled December 10, 1958.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Earl R. Deen
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- 14 cases
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- Published