Ilmar Koivunen v. States Line

The appellant was the plaintiff below. He instituted his suit in an Oregon state court, seeking damages for personal injuries which he suffered while working as a longshoreman aboard a vessel owned by appellee. The appellee removed the suit to the District Court, which assumed jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1332 and 1441. In a jury trial, a verdict of $1000 was rendered in appellant’s favor, and judgment was entered accordingly. Appellant moved that the trial judge grant a new trial unconditionally, or that he grant a new trial unless appellee would accept the imposition of such additional amount of damages which the judge might fix. The motion was denied, and this appeal followed. Our jurisdiction rests upon 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

The appeal is based upon only one contention, namely, that the evidence was insufficient to support instruction to the jury that if appellee’s responsibility should be determined, appellant’s damages should be reduced according to the degree of contribution of his own negligence, if any, to the accident. Put another way, the appellant insists that he was free of contributory negligence and that we should hold, as a matter of law, that the evidence was…