Summary
allowing Rule 60(b) motion when the Supreme Court overturned case law relied on in the district court's judgment
Summary of this case from Ward v. KennardOpinion
No. 284, Docket 23528.
Argued April 18, 1955.
Decided May 11, 1955.
Appeal from a judgment entered on a directed verdict after a trial before Judge Edelstein and a jury. The action was brought by a stevedore against the owner of a vessel which he had been unloading, based on the unseaworthiness of the vessel because of the alleged presence of saddle soap on a hatchway ladder. The Judge directed a verdict because the owner of the vessel had surrendered control of the ladder during the period of the accident, Mollica v. Compania Sud-Americana DeVapores, 2 Cir., 202 F.2d 25, and entered a final judgment. Twenty-one days later plaintiff moved for a new trial on the ground that Alaska S.S. Co. v. Petterson, 347 U.S. 396, 74 S.Ct. 601, 98 L.Ed. 798, decided subsequent to the instant case, laid down a legal rule contrary to that applied in the cases on which the trial judge in the instant case had relied. The motion was denied without opinion. Plaintiff has appealed.
Jacob Rassner, New York City (Harvey Goldstein, New York City, of counsel), for appellant.
Kirlin, Campbell Keating, New York City (Walter X. Connor and Vernon Sims Jones, New York City, of counsel), for appellee.
Before CLARK, Chief Judge, and FRANK and HINCKS, Circuit Judges.
1. Judge Edelstein correctly interpreted the rule of Mollica v. Compania Sud-Americana DeVapores, 2 Cir., 202 F.2d 25, and other cases, and properly directed a verdict for the defendant under the law as then interpreted in this Circuit.
2. An appeal of the original judgment is barred by the fact that plaintiff did not file his notice of appeal until May 28, 1954, sixty-four days after entry of the original judgment. But the appeal is timely as to the question raised by the motion to reopen the judgment. See, e.g., United States v. Wissahickon Tool Works, 2 Cir., 200 F.2d 936.
3. On April 5, 1954, the Supreme Court decided Alaska S.S. Co. v. Petterson, 347 U.S. 396, 74 S.Ct. 601, 98 L.Ed. 798, affirming, on the opinion below, the decision of the Ninth Circuit in Petterson v. Alaska S.S. Co., 205 F.2d 478, 479. The opinion of the Ninth Circuit had expressly rejected the "`relinquishment of control'" doctrine of the Second Circuit expressed in Mollica v. Compania Sud-Americana DeVapores, 2 Cir., 202 F.2d 25, and other cases. Since the doctrine of the Petterson case conflicts with the cases on which the trial judge relied in directing a verdict, the trial judge should have treated plaintiff's motion as a motion under Fed.Rules Civ. Proc. rule 60(b), 28 U.S.C.A., to correct a mistake of the court. Thus viewed, plaintiff's appeal is timely, for the motion was filed ten days after the decision of the Supreme Court in Petterson, and the notice of appeal filed within thirty days after the denial of that motion.
The judgment is reversed, and the action remanded for a new trial on the issue of unseaworthiness.