Jessica Frye v. CSX Transp., Inc.
Opinion
Tragedy befell thirteen-year-old Shyan Frye. While walking her bicycle over a rail crossing in Huron Township, Michigan, she was struck by an oncoming train. The collision proved fatal.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, Shyan's mother, Plaintiff Jessica Frye, brought suit against Defendants CSX Transportation, Inc., the train's owner; Alan Gallacher, the train's conductor; and Consolidated Rail Corporation, or "Conrail," the owner of the track. The claims against Gallacher were resolved in his favor at summary judgment, and the remaining claims were submitted to a jury. The jury, in turn, returned a verdict in favor of Defendants CSX and Conrail.
On appeal, Frye challenges numerous aspects of the proceedings below. She takes issue with the district court's entry of summary judgment for Gallacher. And she takes issue with a host of rulings at trial. They include: The district court's refusal to strike potential juror Jay Lodge for cause during voir dire; two evidentiary rulings by the district court, one admitting evidence of the potential side effects of an anti-depressant Shyan was taking at the time of her death, and another excluding photographs of the railroad crossing after it was resurfaced; and finally, the district court's refusal to give a jury instruction regarding the heightened duty of care imposed on tortfeasors when children are present.
We find no error in the district court's summary judgment ruling nor in its handling of the trial proceedings. In a case born out of tragedy and presenting challenging legal issues, the district court allowed the jury to assess the defendants' culpability against the backdrop of the proper legal framework. We accordingly AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.
I. BACKGROUND
On April 15, 2011, Shyan Frye, a thirteen-year-old eighth-grade student, was
*596
struck and killed by a train while walking her bicycle over a single-track crossing. The train was operated by CSX and manned by two CSX employees: Craig Fischer, the engineer, and Defendant Alan Gallacher, the conductor. At the time of the accident, the train was traveling below the applicable speed limit, and its horn sounded for approximately 20 seconds before it reached the crossing-more than required by federal law.
See
The crossing was owned and maintained by Conrail. Conrail had equipped the crossing with signal bells and lights that activated as intended nearly 40 seconds before the train arrived at the crossing. The accident occurred on a clear day when oncoming trains were fully visible.
A. The Parties Present Differing Explanations As To The Cause Of The Train Accident.
Fischer and Gallacher were the only witnesses to the accident. According to their testimony, Shyan came into view of the train crew approximately 40 seconds before the accident. Both Fischer and Gallacher testified that they witnessed Shyan walk onto the track while straddling her bicycle. When the train was roughly a quarter-mile from the crossing, Fischer applied the train's emergency brakes, realizing a collision was imminent. Shyan never looked up at the train before it struck her.
Why did Shyan remain on the tracks in the face of an oncoming train? That question, more than any other, divided the parties below. Frye asserted that Shyan's bicycle tires became stuck in the poorly maintained tracks as she made her way through the crossing. Photographs admitted at trial revealed large gaps in the crossing in which a bicycle tire could have become lodged.
Defendants advanced a different narrative, one that turned on Shyan's mental state. Defendants elicited testimony indicating that Shyan was struggling with school and was at risk of having to repeat eighth grade. She also struggled with weight problems. At the time of her death, she was taking Adderall for ADHD and Celexa to offset Adderall's side effects. An autopsy found Celexa present in Shyan's liver.
Throughout the proceedings below, Defendants emphasized that suicidal ideation was a potential side effect of the medication Shyan was taking. Frye responded with a motion in limine to exclude testimony of this kind at trial, describing it as irrelevant and substantially more prejudicial than probative. The district court denied the motion but also instructed Defendants to lay the proper foundation for the testimony at trial. During the ensuing trial proceedings, Defendants proffered the testimony of Dr. Scott Somerset, who performed the autopsy, and Dr. Bradford Hepler, the Wayne County toxicologist, to describe Celexa's potential side effects. Both doctors testified that Celexa is an anti-depressant capable of causing suicidal thoughts in children consistent with warnings issued by both the Food and Drug Administration and the drug's manufacturer. The district court admitted the testimony.
B. The District Court Enters Summary Judgment For Gallacher, And The Remaining Defendants Proceeded To Trial.
Prior to trial, Defendants moved for summary judgment on all issues. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of Gallacher, the conductor, rejecting Frye's argument that CSX's operating procedures, which assigned the conductor responsibility to assist the engineer in *597 stopping the train, created a legal duty to do so on the part of the conductor. The district court found that Frye did not argue that Gallacher was under any state-law duty to stop the train independent of the operating procedures; nor did she cite any Michigan authorities to that effect.
As to the remaining Defendants, the district court concluded that Frye had abandoned all but four of her claims-two against CSX, one for failing to slow the train and another for failing to sound the train horn properly, and two against Conrail, one for failing to maintain the crossing and another for failing to train employees regarding inspection and repair of the crossing. The district court concluded that no reasonable jury could find that CSX failed to sound the train horn properly and accordingly entered summary judgment on that claim. The remaining claims were allowed to proceed to trial.
During voir dire, Frye moved to strike Jay Lodge, a potential juror, for cause. Frye's motion was based on Lodge's ownership of a consulting company that did business with the Department of the Army. Although Lodge was party to a non-disclosure agreement with the government regarding his business, he explained in general terms that his company assists the federal government in soliciting tenants for unused railyard and storage facilities in government-owned ammunition plants. While some of those prospective tenants are railroad companies, Lodge's company did not have a direct financial interest in whether prospective tenants ultimately entered into a lease with the government. On multiple occasions, the district court asked Lodge whether he had a financial interest that would prevent him from being a fair and impartial juror. Each time he responded that he did not. The district court denied Frye's motion to strike Lodge for cause, but he was later discharged when Frye used a peremptory challenge to strike him.
During the trial's evidentiary phase, Frye attempted to introduce photographs of the crossing after it had been resurfaced following the accident. The resurfacing was done pursuant to an order of the Michigan Department of Transportation. The district court, however, excluded those photographs, finding them to be inadmissible evidence of subsequent remedial measures.
C. Following Instructions And Deliberations, The Jury Returns A Verdict For Defendants.
At the close of evidence, the district court instructed the jury on the law to apply to the evidence adduced at trial. Among those instructions was one requested by Defendants (and commonly given in Michigan train collision cases) regarding the duty of a train engineer. Consistent with Michigan law, the jury was instructed that engineers are entitled to presume that a person standing on railroad tracks will move off in time to avoid a collision:
Until it becomes apparent otherwise, a train engineer is entitled to presume that a person on the tracks will get off or that a person approaching the tracks will stop in time to avoid the danger. An engineer may also assume that a person on or near the tracks will exercise ordinary care. When a person is on the tracks, as opposed to approaching them, a train engineer is bound to slow or stop the train for those who are apparently unaware of the danger and do not hear or notice warning signals.
In view of that instruction, Frye requested that the district court also give Michigan Civil Jury Instruction 10.07, a more general instruction sometimes given in tort cases involving children. It would have instructed the jury to impose a higher *598 duty of care on a defendant that had reason to believe children may be in the vicinity:
The law recognizes that children act upon childish instincts and impulses. If you find the defendant knew or should have known that a child or children were or were likely to be in the vicinity, then the defendant is required to exercise greater vigilance, and this is a circumstance to be considered by you in determining whether reasonable care was used by the defendant.
The district court declined to give that instruction, finding that it was not applicable to cases involving train collisions in light of the more specific instruction regarding train crews. Nevertheless, the district court, believing that Frye was entitled to some instruction regarding Shyan's status as a minor, instructed the jury to hold Shyan to the standard of care expected of a reasonable thirteen-year-old under the circumstances:
It was the duty of Frye's decedent, Shyan Frye, in connection with this occurrence, to use ordinary care for her own safety. A minor is not held to the same standard of conduct as an adult. When I use the words "ordinary care" with respect to Shyan Frye, I mean that degree of care which a reasonably careful minor of the age, mental capacity and experience of Shyan Frye would use under the circumstances which you find existed in the case. It is for you to decide what a reasonably careful minor would do or would not do under such circumstances.
At the close of trial, the jury found for Defendants on all claims. As to CSX, the jury found that it was not negligent. As to Conrail, the jury found that while the company was negligent, its negligence was not a proximate cause of Shyan's death. The district court entered judgment on the verdict.
Frye filed a motion for a new trial. In it, she challenged (1) the admission of testimony regarding Celexa's side effects, (2) the district court's refusal to give Michigan Civil Jury Instruction 10.07, (3) the district court's entry of summary judgment in favor of Gallacher, (4) the exclusion of photographs of the resurfaced crossing, and (5) the district court's refusal to strike potential juror Lodge for cause. The district court denied the motion. This timely appeal followed.
II. ANALYSIS
A. The Evidence of Celexa's Potential Side Effects Was Properly Admitted.
We review a trial court's evidentiary ruling under an abuse of discretion standard.
Ayers v. City of Cleveland
,
Defendants sought to admit the Celexa side-effect evidence on the grounds that it assisted the jury in explaining Shyan's behavior on the day of the accident. Frye argues that the evidence should have been excluded on relevance grounds under Federal Rules of Evidence 401 and 402 or, alternatively, as more prejudicial than probative under Federal Rule of Evidence 403. We disagree.
1. The Side-Effect Evidence Was Relevant Under Federal Rule Of Evidence 401.
Federal Rule of Evidence 401 instructs that evidence is relevant if it has any tendency to make a fact of consequence in determining the action more or less probable.
*599
As indicated by its use of the phrase "any tendency," the Rule 401 standard is extremely liberal.
2. The Side-Effect Evidence Was Not More Prejudicial Than Probative Under Federal Rule Of Evidence 403.
Unless expressly proscribed by another evidentiary rule, relevant evidence is admissible by operation of Federal Rule of Evidence 402. Frye says such admission is proscribed here by application of Federal Rule of Evidence 403. That rule, of course, allows a trial court to exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the risk that it may unfairly prejudice one of the parties.
In response, Frye argues that whatever the Celexa evidence's probative value may have been, its admission was deeply and unfairly prejudicial to her case. She cites two cases to support the point. They are two out-of-circuit decisions, one state, one federal, however, and thus non-binding. More than that, they are easily distinguishable, primarily because they involved accidents where, unlike here, the plaintiff's conduct or state of mind was largely irrelevant.
Ratner v. General Motors Corp.
addressed a car crash allegedly caused by a defective accelerator.
Here, the record below favored admission. The pivotal issue at trial was not whether any component of the train was defective, but rather why Shyan remained on the track. Foundational evidence established that she did so for up to 40 seconds. That evidence coupled with evidence about her physical and mental health issues made her state of mind squarely relevant to the fact finder. For that reason, evidence showing the effect her medication may have had on her mental state was properly admissible.
Equally unavailing is
Celaya v. Hankook Tire America Corp.
, No. CV-11-00429,
Today's case, on the other hand, turns largely on the actions of the decedent, not the defendants. Frye was permitted to introduce evidence of gaps in the crossing surface in which Shyan's bicycle tires may have become stuck to explain to the jury why she would have stood in the path of an oncoming train. Likewise, Defendants were properly permitted to explain that same conduct by introducing evidence that Shyan may have been having suicidal thoughts as a result of taking Celexa. Frye is correct to note that one cannot know with certainty that Shyan was in fact experiencing these side effects. But the same can be said of Frye's theory regarding the bicycle tires. And in any event, certainty is not the governing standard for admission under the Federal Rules of Evidence.
All told, the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the Celexa evidence. The court took note of Frye's concerns about prejudice by instructing Defendants to lay a proper foundation before introducing the Celexa side-effect evidence. Defendants complied with these instructions at trial. The great deference afforded to trial courts in making evidentiary decisions was not exceeded in this case.
Broad Street Energy Co. v. Endeavor Ohio, LLC
,
B. The District Court Did Not Err By Refusing To Give Michigan Civil Jury Instruction 10.07.
Next, Frye contends that the district court erred by failing to give Michigan Civil Jury Instruction 10.07, a general instruction regarding a child's "instincts and impulses." Although state substantive law governs the content of jury instructions in diversity cases, federal procedural law governs the review of the propriety of those instructions.
King v. Ford Motor Co.
,
Individual jury instructions are not reviewed in isolation.
Johnson Controls, Inc. v. Jay Indus., Inc.
,
It is a close question whether Frye's proposed instruction fails the first criteria. Instruction 10.07, while correct as a general presumption in tort cases involving children, runs up against a more specific presumption applicable to this case-one addressing train accidents.
See
Tomes v. Detroit, T. & I.R. Co.
,
Tomes
is factually similar to this case. In
Tomes
, a thirteen-year-old girl was struck and killed by a train while walking on tracks near her home. As the girl suffered from no apparent disability and there was no obstruction of the girl's view at the crossing, the court found the defendant railway free of negligence. Absent a clear indication otherwise, said the Michigan Supreme Court, the engineer there could reasonably assume the girl would move off the tracks before the collision.
So too here. Though Shyan was a minor, there is nothing in the record to suggest she was incapable of recognizing the danger posed by an oncoming train. Her view at the crossing was unobstructed, the train's horn sounded, and the crossing's signal bells and lights activated. Under these circumstances, the train crew, like the train crew in Tomes , was under no duty to stop the train until it was clear Shyan would not step away from the track. And by that time, the collision was unavoidable, given the great difficulty in stopping a train.
Compelled by Michigan law to instruct the jury as it did regarding reasonable assumptions made by train crews, the district court nevertheless did not ignore Frye's request entirely. Rather, it gave a modified version of Frye's requested instruction, explaining to the jury that Shyan should be held only to the standard of care applicable to a thirteen-year-old under the circumstances. Frye was entitled to no more under Michigan law.
C. The District Court Properly Entered Summary Judgment In Favor Of Conductor Gallacher.
Frye also challenges the district court's entry of partial summary judgment in favor of Gallacher, the train conductor. We review the district court's entry of summary judgment
de novo
.
Adair v. Charter Cty. of Wayne
,
We can quickly resolve two threshold appealability challenges made by Defendants. The first is Defendants' contention that Frye's notice of appeal was untimely. We echo the notion that appeal deadlines must be taken seriously. From time to time, those deadlines can trip up an appealing party, even in ways fatal to an appeal.
See
Bowles v. Russell
,
Second, Defendants contend that Frye forfeited any appellate arguments with respect to Gallacher by failing to object
*602
to a jury instruction that explicitly stated that Gallacher was not liable. But the reason Frye did not object is a simple one: The district court had already entered summary judgment in favor of Gallacher. In that posture, Frye was not required to object to a prior definitive ruling by the district court.
See
K & T Enters., Inc. v. Zurich Ins. Co.
,
With these procedural hurdles cleared, we turn to the merits of Frye's challenge to the district court's entry of summary judgment in favor of Gallacher.
1. CSX's Internal Operating Procedures Did Not Place A Legal Duty Upon Gallacher To Slow Or Stop The Train.
Under Michigan law, before liability in tort can be attributed to a defendant, the plaintiff must establish that a legal duty governed the defendant's conduct.
Romain v. Frankenmuth Mut. Ins. Co.
,
2. Frye Forfeited Any Argument That Michigan Law Independently Imposed A Duty On Gallacher To Stop The Train.
Frye alternatively asks us to find that Michigan law independently imposed a duty upon Gallacher to avoid the collision. For us to do our part, however, Frye must first have done hers. She needed to make a timely request to the district court to rule upon the issue. Her failure to do so dooms her arguments on appeal.
See
Scottsdale Ins. Co. v. Flowers
,
By way of background, in her opposition to Defendants' motion for summary judgment, Frye argued that CSX's internal operating procedures placed Gallacher under a legal duty to help stop the train. She *603 did not argue that Michigan law independently placed a similar duty upon Gallacher; nor did she cite Michigan authority for that proposition.
Raising one argument did nothing to preserve another.
See
Sigmon Fuel Co. v. Tenn. Valley Auth.
,
Sometimes, a party may make a vague or incomplete reference to an argument below and then seek to raise that argument on appeal. Such cases can raise different questions regarding preservation and forfeiture.
See, e.g.
,
Thurman v. Yellow Freight Sys., Inc
.,
Because Frye argued that Gallacher had a legal duty to slow the train under Michigan law for the first time in her motion for a new trial, the district court properly deemed the argument untimely. A plaintiff typically may not wait until the district court has already entered judgment to raise new arguments.
See
Flowers
,
D. Any Error By The District Court In Refusing To Admit Photographs Of The Resurfaced Crossing Was Harmless.
Frye argues that the district court erred in invoking Federal Rule of Evidence 407, which limits the grounds for admitting evidence of "subsequent remedial measures," to exclude from evidence photographs of the resurfaced crossing. A trial court's evidentiary decisions are reviewed for abuses of discretion and are not lightly overturned.
Nolan v. Memphis City Sch.
,
Ordinarily, evidence of a subsequent remedial measure is not admissible at trial to establish a party's negligence or culpable conduct.
See
Fed. R. Evid. 407 ;
see also
Yates v. Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharm., Inc.
,
Resurfacing a hazardous railroad crossing following an accident might strike one as a quintessential subsequent remedial measure. But Frye, to her credit, has a counterpoint. The remedial measure, she notes, seemingly was not done voluntarily, but rather by order of the Michigan Department of Transportation, a regulatory authority. And where a subsequent remedial action is compelled, not voluntary, the remedying party has not undertaken a good deed, at least not without compulsion.
But even if Frye could show an abuse of discretion in excluding photographs of the resurfaced crossing (and we offer no opinion on the matter), any error in excluding them was harmless.
See
Harnden v. Jayco
,
It is hard to see how pictures of the crossing as resurfaced one year after the incident would show anything about causation at the time of the accident. That is especially true when, as revealed by the jury's verdict, pictures of the crossing from the time of the incident did not establish causation. Equally true, if admitted, the photographs of the resurfaced crossing presented added risk of prejudice and confusion. Under these circumstances, any potential error regarding application of Rule 407 was harmless.
E. The District Court Did Not Abuse Its Discretion In Refusing To Strike Prospective Juror Lodge For Cause.
Finally, Frye contends that the district court erred by denying her motion to strike Juror Lodge for cause. Voir dire revealed that Lodge owned a consulting company that worked indirectly with railroad companies like CSX. Although Lodge was stricken peremptorily and took no part in the jury's deliberations, Frye argues that the fact she was forced to use a peremptory challenge on Lodge constitutes reversible error. The district court's decision to exclude a juror for cause is reviewed for an abuse of discretion.
United States v. Guzman
,
Jurors are presumed to be impartial, a presumption that can be overcome where the moving party can show grounds for actual bias.
In the absence of a finding of actual bias, Frye contends that the district court alternatively should have found implied bias. The doctrine of implied bias, if it applies at all, applies only in extreme
*605
cases in which the relationship between the juror and some aspect of the litigation makes it "highly unlikely that the average person could remain impartial."
Treesh
,
At most, Frye's cases stand for the proposition that present and direct financial interests may, depending on the circumstances, make the average person highly unlikely to act impartially. For instance, in
Getter v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
,
Equally unavailing is Frye's argument that Lodge's non-disclosure agreement with the government may have concealed evidence of bias. As a factual matter, that agreement did not prevent Lodge from describing his business activities in terms sufficient to identify any potential financial interest in the case. It bears repeating that jurors are presumed to be impartial. Absent any concrete evidence of prejudice, the presumption of impartiality stands.
United States v. Maxwell
,
III. CONCLUSION
For these reasons, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Jessica FRYE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CSX TRANSPORTATION, INC.; Consolidated Rail Corporation; Alan Gallacher, Defendants-Appellees.
- Cited By
- 95 cases
- Status
- Published