Frankee v. Johns-Manville Corp.

KIRKPATRICK, Chief Judge.(1) Turner’s motion for judgment under Rule 50, 28 U.S.C., or for a new trial.

Hoyt, the decedent, was last seen a matter of seconds before his death as he was starting to descend a steel column rising some six to eight feet from the transite roof which broke under his weight. No one actually saw what happened.

The principal ground for these motions is that the circumstantial evidence which the plaintiff offered was insufficient to allow the jury to make the essential finding as to the manner in which the accident happened. The argument is that, so far as the evidence…