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Martinez v. Friede2/20/2004
jury was asked to clarify its award but only briefly deliberated before awarding Antonette Martinez the entire $30,000. It is possible that the jury understood Jury Instruction No. 23, determined that Antonette was entitled to $30,000 in pain and suffering, and failed to believe that Petitioner experienced any pain and suffering despite evidence to the contrary. However, it was also perfectly reasonable for the district court judge, who is best situated to determine jury confusion in light of the evidence, to conclude that the jury's refusal to award Petitioner damages for pain and suffering was more likely the result of a misunderstanding of Jury Instruction No. 23. Under these circumstances, we cannot go so far as to say that the district court abused its discretion in setting aside the judgment and granting Petitioner a new trial on damages. Cf. Rodriguez v. Conant, 105 N.M. 746, 749-51, 737 P.2d 527, 530-32 (1987) (refusing to reverse for abuse of discretion when district court made reasonable determination to grant relief under Rule 1-060(B)(6)).
Nonetheless, Respondent argues that regardless of whether Jury Instruction No. 23 was confusing, Petitioner was not entitled to relief from the judgment because she failed to object to the jury instruction. Rule 1-051(I) NMRA 2004 provides that " or the preservation of any error in the charge, objection must be made to any instruction given, whether in UJI Civil or not." Although Rule 1-051(I) is generally applied to determine whether a claimed error in the jury instructions was adequately preserved for appeal, see, e.g., Gillingham v. Reliable Chevrolet, 1998-NMCA-143, 16-18, 126 N.M. 30, 966 P.2d 197; there is dicta in at least one Court of Appeals case indicating that a party's failure to object to the jury instructions acts as a bar to the district court's power to grant a new trial on the basis of jury confusion. See Harrison v. ICX, Ill.-Cal. Exp., Inc., 98 N.M. 247, 252, 647 P.2d 880, 885 (Ct. App. 1982) ("If [the jury instructions] were not proper, plaintiffs participated in the submission of these matters to the jury, and they cannot now seek to have the verdict set aside by way of a motion for a new trial or on appeal.").
A number of other states, though, have held that a court may at a later time properly correct erroneous, misleading, or confusing jury instructions, even when the complaining party failed to object to those instructions. See, e.g., Wheeler v. Bagley, 575 N.W.2d 616, 619 (Neb. 1998) (holding that while "the failure to object to instructions when submitted to counsel for review will [ordinarily] preclude raising an objection thereafter," the general rule "does not prevent the trial judge from correcting his or her instruction error by sustaining a motion for a new trial"). In this case, Rule 1-051(I) presents no barrier to the district court's ability to reopen judgment under Rule 1-060(B) and grant a new trial on the basis of jury confusion, despite Petitioner's failure to object to Jury Instruction No. 23. A district court judge should have the power to recognize any confusion that his or her instructions may have caused the jury and to order a new trial when that confusion may have contributed to the jury's verdict. Furthermore, the preservation requirement of Rule 1-051(I) is not intended to be punitive; rather, it is intended "to ensure that the district court and opposing counsel are alerted to the error in order to provide the court an opportunity to correct a potential mistake." Allen v. Tong, 2003-NMCA-056, 32, 133 N.M. 594, 66 P.3d 963, cert. quashed, 2003-NMCERT-3. The purpose of Rule 1-051(I) would actually be undermined by precluding district court judges from correcting unpreserved errors prior to appeal.
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