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Golden Eagle Archery6/29/2000
On Petition for Review from the Court of Appeals for the Ninth District of Texas
Argued on April 6, 1999
Justice Gonzales delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Chief
Justice Phillips, Justice Hecht, Justice Enoch, Justice Owen, Justice Baker, Justice Hankinson and Justice O'Neill joined.
Justice Hecht filed a concurring opinion, in which Justice Owen joined.
Justice Abbott filed a concurring opinion.
The Court reverses the court of appeals' judgment and remands the cause to that court.
The main issue in this case is whether procedural and evidentiary rules may constitutionally prohibit jurors from testifying post-verdict about statements made during deliberations, unless such statements concern outside influences. See Tex. R. Civ. P. 327(b); Tex. R. Civ. Evid. 606(b). Ronald Jackson obtained a verdict in a products liability case, but moved for a new trial on several grounds, including juror misconduct, juror bias, and the adequacy of the verdict. After a hearing, the trial court denied the motion. The court of appeals reversed and remanded for a new trial, holding that Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 327(b) denied Jackson his constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury trial because it prohibited him from proving jury misconduct during deliberations. 974 S.W.2d 952, 954. Because we conclude that the rule is constitutional, we reverse the court of appeals's judgment and remand to that court to consider Jackson's other points of error that the court of appeals did not reach.
I.
Jackson's wife bought him a Golden Eagle compound bow from a Wal- Mart store. When Jackson drew back the string the bow slipped out of his hand and a cable guard struck his eye, causing severe injuries. He sued Golden Eagle Archery, Inc., Coleman Company, Inc., and Wal-Mart, Inc. for negligence and products liability. The trial court dismissed the claims against Coleman and Wal-Mart, leaving Golden Eagle as the sole defendant. The jury found that Golden Eagle defectively marketed the bow but failed to find that the bow was defectively designed. The jury also found that Jackson was negligent, and attributed to him 45% of the responsibility for his injury. The jury found Jackson's damages to be approximately $25,000 for medical care, $2,500 for physical pain and mental anguish, $2,500 for vision loss, $0 for physical impairment other than vision loss, $1,500 for disfigurement, and $4,600 for past lost earnings. Ten of the twelve jurors signed the verdict. The trial court asked the ten if they agreed to the entire verdict, but neither party asked to poll the individual jurors. The trial court then rendered a judgment for approximately $20,000 damages and $6,700 prejudgment interest.
Jackson moved for a new trial. He challenged the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support several of the jury's answers, contested the trial court's exclusion of certain evidence, and alleged that juror Barbara Maxwell concealed a bias during voir dire and that she and other jurors committed misconduct before and during formal deliberations. The motion attached affidavits from one of Jackson's attorneys and three jurors. Two of the affidavits were from the jurors who did not vote for the verdict, Donald Frederick and Janet Cline. A third was from the presiding juror, Shawn Lynch. The motion asserted that even though Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 327(b) prohibits consideration of juror affidavits to impeach the verdict, to ignore the evidence of misconduct during deliberations would unconstitutionally deny Jackson his right to a fair trial. Golden Eagle responded that both Rule 327(b) and Texas Rule of Civ
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