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Mainor v. Nault11/22/2004
g on Mainor and Harris's motion in limine, the district court ruled that Jason would be allowed to be present during jury selection but not during closing arguments. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion by allowing Jason to be present during the jury selection.
Article 1, Section 3 of the Nevada Constitution provides, in relevant part, that " he right of trial by Jury shall be secured to all and remain inviolate forever." Both Article 1, Section 8(5) of the Nevada Constitution and the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibit deprivation of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
A party's right to be present at his trial is not absolute but rather must be balanced against the opposing party's right to an impartial jury. Where the party's presence might elicit so much sympathy from the jury that the jury would likely disregard its duties as instructed and find for the party based on sympathy alone, the opposing party's right to a fair tribunal would be violated. We generally approve and adopt with one modification the approach set forth in Helminski because it properly balances the parties' respective rights. We believe that a party should be permitted to attend his or her trial, or every segment of it if the trial is bifurcated, even though that attendance is very limited.
After a hearing on the matter, the district court in this case concluded that Jason had a right to be present during jury selection, but his presence during closing arguments would only serve to engender sympathy with the jury. The district court did not abuse its discretion. First, Jason was only present for approximately ten minutes during one and one-half days of jury selection. Second, Mainor and Harris did not seek to bifurcate the trial under the Helminski test, and the issues were so intertwined that it would have been nearly impossible to bifurcate the trial. Moreover, Mainor and Harris did not cause Jason's condition, and, arguably, Jason's involuntary exclusion would have been improper because his physical condition was not related to Mainor and Harris's conduct, and the jury could appreciate that fact. Third, the Naults played a videotape, without objection, of a day in Jason's life that depicted Jason shortly after the injury, when his condition was much worse. Because the videotape was likely to engender far more sympathy than seeing Jason in his current condition, Mainor and Harris waived any claims of prejudice by failing to object to the videotape. Fourth, the opportunity to see Jason was relevant to Mainor and Harris's claim that Jason was likely to die soon. The difference between Jason's condition just after the incident and his current condition was relevant to show that Jason's condition had improved and that he could live much longer than initially expected. Finally, jury sympathy alone is insufficient to constitute prejudice; there must exist a likelihood that the jury will disregard its duty to follow the law as instructed and will find for the injured party solely because of his injury.
Sufficiency of the Evidence Regarding Damages
Mainor and Harris assert that there was no legal or evidentiary basis for the jury's determination that Jason was entitled to a larger share of the settlement proceeds because the Naults failed to show proximate causation. Mainor's efforts resulted in a $17 million settlement, which provided Jason with more than enough to meet his needs for the rest of his life. Mainor and Harris assert that, while Jason's life expectancy had changed since the time of the settlement, it was still very short and there was no evidence that his annuity was insufficient to meet his needs.
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