 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Paulos v. Covenant Transport2/20/2004
ch disclosure will create substantial danger of undue prejudice, of confusing the issues, or of misleading the jury.
Id. Instruction sixteen did precisely what Slusher commands. At trial, Paulos claimed that the instruction was erroneous because it did not advise the jury against considering any aspect of the settlement in arriving at its determination of liability. However, the second paragraph of instruction sixteen, unmentioned by Paulos, gives that very limitation:
By settling with the plaintiff, the Muchas did not admit any fault. You must still determine from the evidence which party or parties were negligent, if any, and the percentage of negligence that each contributed in causing the accident. In making that determination of fault, you must not consider the settlement agreement as either an admission of fault (or lack of fault) by the Muchas. Nor should you consider the settlement agreement as an indication of the Muchas' willingness to deal responsibly with the plaintiff.
As for Paulos's contention that the last paragraph of instruction sixteen was a comment on the evidence, Slusher held that "the jury should be informed of the changed financial interest of the parties concerned and the realigned positions of the litigants." Id. Instruction sixteen did that: "Since the plaintiff and the Muchas have settled, they are no longer adversary parties in this lawsuit. The plaintiff now has a financial interest in showing that Covenant Transport is entirely to blame for the accident. Also, the Muchas now have no reason to dispute the amount of damages the plaintiff claims." Further, footnote nine of Slusher cautioned that the instruction needs to "emphasize that the settlement and resulting change in the adversarial alignment of the parties could be considered only in evaluating the credibility of testimony and not on the question of liability." Slusher, 777 P.2d at 442 n.9. The remaining sentence in the paragraph Paulos objected to, did just that. After cautioning that the settlement could not be considered in the determination of liability, instruction sixteen states: "You may, however, consider the settlement agreement when you weigh the believability of the testimony presented."
Additionally, before a party can "assert that the trial court erred in either giving or failing to give an instruction, a party must first submit correct instructions and then, should the court fail to give them, timely except." Newsom v. Gold Cross Serv., Inc., 779 P.2d 692, 694 (Utah Ct. App. 1989) (emphasis added). Paulos did not submit an alternative Slusher instruction and, therefore, cannot now assert that the trial court erred.
Paulos also takes exception to instruction twenty-two. Instruction twenty-two advised the jury that " violation of a safety law is evidence of negligence." The instruction then listed three exceptions to that rule:
(1) When obeying the law would have created an even greater risk of harm.
(2) When the person who violated the law was faced with an emergency that person did not create, and, by reason of the emergency, that person could not obey the law.
(3) When the person who violated the law made a reasonable effort to obey the law, but was unable to do so.
It is important to note that the jury probably did not even reach the exceptions, given the dispute over whether Covenant violated a safety law. However, even if the jury did conclude that Covenant had violated a safety law, there is ample evidence to support submission of the exceptions to the jury. The extensive evidence left the jury with many ways that it could view how the accident occurred. See Newsom, 779 P.2d at 694 ("A
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Utah Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|