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Pryor v. Hoskins9/11/2002
. (Appellee's App. 88).
The truckers objected to the instruction above beginning with the sentence, "If you find that the plaintiff's percentage of fault is greater than fifty percent . . . ." Counsel for the truckers explained,
I believe that there should be a prefaced portion to that sentence, and it should read if you believe Defendants have any negligence, you shall determine the percentage of fault of the Plaintiff and the Defendant, these percentages must total one hundred percent (100%), and then a sentence along the lines of, right after that, if on the other hand you find Defendants have no fault, you should return a verdict for Defendants. And that goes back to this concept under Indiana law, tort law, there's two (2) ways that a jury can find in favor of the Defendants. First of all, there's - one (1), there's no negligence at all, and number two (2) way to find in favor of Defendants is if there is negligence, the negligence of Defendants was something less than fifty percent (50%). And I think that this particular jury instruction leads a jury to believe that there is only one (1) way to find in favor of the Defendants, rather than - and which is that there's a percentage of fault less than fifty percent (50%). So, I would add that extra language to instruction number five (5) that I just mentioned. (Tr. 703-04).
The trial court provided two verdict forms to the jury. One verdict form was entitled "Verdict for Plaintiff," and contained blanks to specify the plaintiff's percentage, from "0 - 50%," of fault, and the defendants' percentage, from "0 - 100%," of fault. (App. 30). The other verdict form was entitled "Verdict for Defendants," and provided blanks for the jury to find the plaintiff's fault as a percentage of "more than 50%" and the defendants' fault as a percentage of "less than 50%." (App. 32).
The truckers argued to the trial court that rather than two verdict forms, there should be three: one verdict form could find "that the Defendants had no negligence;" another verdict form could find "that the Defendants had negligence but their negligence was less than fifty percent (50%) at fault, and therefore the verdict should be returned for the Defendants;" and a third verdict form indicating that "Defendants had negligence of fifty percent (50%) or more." (Tr. 710, 711). The truckers' counsel argued,
Your jury Verdict Forms, in my opinion, and respectfully, only contemplate two (2) of the three (3) possibilities. They do not contemplate the first possibility that the jury could just flat out find, as Indiana law allows, that the Defendants committed no negligence whatsoever, and we believe that the two (2) jury Verdict Forms that have been submitted suggest to the jury that they need to assign a certain number thirty-seven point zero nine (37.09) contemplates what I'm referring to, single Defendant, we, the jury find for the defendant. We believe that should be one (1) of the jury instructions. In fact, we tendered that as a Verdict Form as part of our tendered final jury instructions, and that would've been Verdict Form B that we tendered. We think that that's the proper Verdict Form to add in addition to those that you already have. (Tr. 710-11).
Combining their contentions, the truckers argue that the trial court's instruction presumed that they were at fault and, with only two verdict forms, the jurors were not told "that they could find Defendants free of all fault." Appellants' Br. at 18.
We have long held that " n instruction given to the jury must be a correct statement of the law, be applicable to the evidence adduced at trial, and be relevant to the issues the jury must decide in reaching its verdi
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