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Peterson v. BASF Corp.3/11/2003
nd 1996.
III.
BASF contends that it is entitled to a new trial based on the trial court's failure to instruct the jury on numerous crucial elements of its defenses and on its improper admission of evidence.
Jury Instructions
The district court has broad latitude in selecting the language of jury instructions, as well as in determining the propriety of a specific instruction. Alholm v. Wilt, 394 N.W.2d 488, 490 (Minn. 1986). Jury instructions will not be reversed absent an abuse of discretion. Hilligoss v. Cargill, Inc., 649 N.W.2d 142, 147 (Minn. 2002). Where the instructions are overall a correct statement of the law, a new trial is not warranted. Id. Jury instructions will be reviewed as a whole. Lindstrom v. Yellow Taxi Co. of Minneapolis, 298 Minn. 224, 229, 214 N.W.2d 672, 676 (1974).
The jury instruction charge need only "convey to the jury a clear and correct understanding of the law." Cameron v. Evans, 241 Minn. 200, 209, 62 N.W.2d 793, 798 (1954). "Usually it is preferable to give a general charge * * * upon the whole law of the case," rather than risk confusing the jury or emphasizing one side of the case by emphasizing particular items. Id. at 209, 62 N.W.2d at 799.
A party is entitled to a specific instruction on his theory of the case if there is evidence to support the instruction and it is in accordance with the applicable law. Cornfeldt v. Tongen, 262 N.W.2d 684, 698 (Minn. 1977) (citations omitted).
The district court instructions track virtually verbatim the New Jersey Supreme Court's model NJCFA jury instructions, taken from the New Jersey Model Civil Charges § 4.23 (May 1998), http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/charges/civil/423.htm (last modified Jan. 2001). The instructions describe and define the two relevant bases for liability under the act, affirmative acts and omissions, and address proximate cause and damages.
BASF first contends that the instructions were deficient because they did not define materiality and did not advise the jury that the affirmative misrepresentation had to be material. BASF contends that a statement is material if "a reasonable person would attach importance to its existence in determining a choice of action." Ji v. Palmer, 755 A.2d 1221, 1228 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2000) (quotation omitted).
The court instructed the jury as follows:
A misrepresentation is an untrue statement, which is made about a fact, which is important or significant to the sale or advertisement, and it is communicated to another person to create the possibility that the other person will be misled. (Emphasis added.)
Similarly, the omission instruction refers to omission of "an important or significant fact." BASF has failed to show an abuse of discretion.
Next, BASF challenges the verdict form. A district court has "broad discretion in drafting special-verdict questions." Russell v. Johnson, 608 N.W.2d 895, 898 (Minn. App. 2000) (citation omitted), review denied (Minn. Juneá27, 2000). While BASF acknowledges that the court instructed the jury that any actionable omission must relate to a material fact, it contends that the court committed a reversible error because the verdict form itself did not refer to "material fact." Instead, the verdict form asked:
Did BASF engage in a knowing omission, suppression or concealment of the truth in relation to BASF's marketing and pricing strategies for Poast and Poast Plus? (Emphasis added.)
First, BASF did not request a separate question on omission in the verdict form, although it did argue that if there were such a question it should refer to materiality. In any
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