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Hamilton v. Oppen12/4/2002
AFFIRMED.
Charles Hamilton appealed from a judgment entered on a jury verdict dismissing his personal injury action against Robert Oppen, and from an order denying his motion for new trial. We conclude the trial court did not err in ruling the jury had not rendered an improper quotient verdict, and did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow Hamilton's expert witness to testify or in refusing to admit in evidence certain photographic evidence. We also conclude there is substantial evidence to support the jury verdict. We therefore affirm the judgment and order.
I.
Hamilton worked for Oppen on Oppen's farm near Rugby. On October 26, 1994, Hamilton, then age 21, was severely injured when he slipped and his leg got caught in an auger while he was cleaning out wet corn left in the hopper of Oppen's combine. The leg required amputation below the knee. In January 2000, Hamilton commenced this personal injury action against Oppen and Navistar International Transportation Corporation ("Navistar"), the manufacturer of the combine. Hamilton alleged Oppen was negligent in teaching him how to clean the auger and Navistar was negligent in its design of the combine and in failing to adequately warn of the dangers. Hamilton and Navistar eventually settled.
The jury returned a verdict finding Hamilton 60 percent at fault for his injuries, Oppen 34 percent at fault, and "Other Persons" 6 percent at fault. The trial court polled the jury after the verdict was received and dismissed the action against Oppen. Hamilton made a motion for new trial, accompanied with affidavits from several jurors, arguing, among other things, that the jury had arrived at a quotient verdict in violation of N.D.R.Civ.P. 59(b)(2). The trial court ruled Hamilton had not established an improper quotient verdict, rejected his other allegations of error, and denied the motion. Hamilton appealed from the judgment and the order denying his motion for new trial.
II.
We review a trial court's denial of a N.D.R.Civ.P. 59 motion for new trial under the abuse of discretion standard. Western Nat'l Mut. Ins. Co. v. University of North Dakota, 2002 ND 63, 31, 643 N.W.2d 4. A trial court abuses its discretion only when it acts in an arbitrary, unreasonable, or unconscionable manner, or when its decision is not the product of a rational mental process leading to a reasoned determination. Praus ex rel. Praus v. Mack, 2001 ND 80, 6, 626 N.W.2d 239. The party seeking a new trial has the burden to affirmatively establish that the trial court abused its discretion. Sollin v. Wangler, 2001 ND 96, 8, 627 N.W.2d 159.
A.
Hamilton argues he is entitled to a new trial because the jury rendered an improper quotient verdict.
A quotient verdict is " verdict resulting from agreement whereby each juror writes down amount of damages to which he thinks party is entitled and such amounts are then added together and divided by number of jurors." Black's Law Dictionary 1256 (6th ed. 1990). The general rules about quotient verdicts are summarized in Annot., Quotient Verdicts, 8 A.L.R. 3d 335, ยง 2, at pp. 340-41 (1966) (footnotes omitted):
Because the jurors who render a quotient verdict agree, without knowing in advance what the quotient will be, to be bound by it and to foreclose the opportunity for further discussion and for comparison and evaluation of individual jurors' positions, quotient verdicts have been considered objectionable on the grounds that they are reached through a process of chance or gambling and are not founded upon discussion, deliberation, reasoning, and collective judgment in which each juror has an oppor
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