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Banks v. Village Enterprises12/5/2000
incident:
art of the evidence in this case will be that Mr. Banks . . . had a choking incident. . . . Now, what I need to know is whether or not any of you or any member of your immediate family have ever had a choking incident . . . which has caused you or your relative to seek medical treatment or this incident was such that a Heimlich maneuver was necessary or performed. Is there anyone who had such an experience or any member of your immediate family that has had such an experience?
Venireperson Seek was the only person to answer affirmatively. He stated that his son had suffered a choking incident during which his wife performed the Heimlich maneuver.
Counsel for KFC further asked the panel members whether they had experienced certain types of depression:
Mr. Banks alleges that he suffered severe mental problems or depression, post traumatic stress disorder and even some symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder as a result of this choking incident . . . what I need to know on behalf of the defendant is whether or not any of you or any member of your immediate family have had a similar problem?
Again, no one responded that they or their immediate family had experienced a similar problem.
Plaintiff's counsel also asked the jurors the "insurance question" toward the end of his voir dire. Prior to trial, the court had ruled that it would permit counsel for Mr. and Mrs. Banks to ask "if any panel member or member of their family is an employee, agent, officer or director of the insurance companies involved which is (sic) American States and Safeco." The court also ruled that, if an affirmative answer to this question were given by any panel member, it would allow one "follow-up" question by counsel, as to whether the panel member's affiliation with either insurance company would affect his or her ability to render an impartial verdict. Accordingly, well into plaintiff's counsel's voir dire examination, he asked:
Does anybody here, you or your family member, [work as] an employee or an agent or an officer or a member of the Board of Directors of American States Insurance Company or Safeco Insurance Company?
Counsel's question clearly and specifically asked only whether the venireperson or a member of his or her family was an employee, officer, agent or member of the Board of the two mentioned insurance companies, and no one identified themselves as falling into any of these categories. Counsel did not ask whether any venirepersons were policyholders of either company. Nonetheless, two venirepersons responded that they were policyholders of American States Insurance Company. Since these two jurors had responded to the insurance question, counsel for the Banks asked them the approved follow-up question: " ould that in any way you think influence your decision-making in this case?" Both panel members answered no, and the insurance issue was dropped. Counsel for Mr. & Mrs. Banks asked the panel several more questions unrelated to insurance before telling the jurors that these were all the questions he had at that time, and the court called a recess. During the recess, counsel for KFC objected to the insurance question posed by counsel for Mr. & Mrs. Banks on the ground that it stressed the insurance issue because it was asked near the end of counsel's voir dire questions. Counsel for Mr. & Mrs. Banks offered to ask more questions before KFC began its questioning, but counsel for KFC argued that this would do nothing to cure the error, because the questions had already been emphasized by taking a break shortly after they were asked. The court overruled the objection, noting that the question asked was pr
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