 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
DUDLEY v. GMT CORP.9/22/1995
The plaintiff, Patricia Dudley, appeals an adverse judgment entered in her personal injury action. While at work, Dudley injured her hand in an assembly machine. Dudley sued the manufacturer of the machine, GMT, as well as Batchelor Engineering and Systems Technologies, Inc., Keller High Tech Ltd., Schrader-Bellows, Inc. and Allen-Bradley Company, Inc. In returning its verdict, the jury found the latter four defendants were not at fault. The jury assigned 55% of the fault to Dudley and 45% of the fault to GMT. On appeal, Dudley claims she is entitled to a new trial because: 1) the jurors misunderstood, misapplied and/or failed to follow the court's instructions in completing the verdict form; and 2) instruction number 17 should not have been submitted [541 NW2d Page 260]
to the jury. We review for the correction of errors at law, Iowa R. App. P. 4, and affirm.
I. IOWA RULES OF EVIDENCE 606(b)
In support of her request for a new trial, Dudley submitted the affidavits and testimony of individuals who had served as jurors at her trial. GMT objected to the consideration of this evidence. Essentially, the affidavits and testimony indicated that in responding to question 15 of the verdict form, the jury had misunderstood the application of our comparative fault principles. The jury believed Dudley would "receive 45% of the recovery" even though it had assigned her 55% of the fault. The jury erroneously concluded that since it had found the plaintiff to be more than 50% at fault, the court would determine the amount of Dudley's damages and she would recover 45% of that amount.
Iowa Rule of Evidence 606(b) governs the admissibility of a juror's evidence when challenging the validity of a verdict.
Upon an inquiry into the validity of a verdict or indictment, a juror may not testify as to any matter or statement occurring during the course of the jury's deliberations or to the effect of anything upon his or any other juror's mind or emotions as influencing him to assent to or dissent from the verdict or indictment or concerning his mental processes in connection therewith, except that a juror may testify on the question whether extraneous prejudicial information was improperly brought to the jury's attention or whether any outside influence was improperly brought to bear upon any juror. Nor may his affidavit or evidence of any statement by him concerning a matter about which he would be precluded from testifying be received for these purposes.
Iowa R.Evid. 606(b).
In Prendergast v. Smith Laboratories, Inc., 440 N.W.2d 880, 884 (Iowa 1989), our supreme court addressed whether a verdict could be overturned based on a showing, through juror testimony, that the jury failed to respond to one of a series of special verdict findings. Juror testimony indicated the jury had made no determination on the issue of total damages. The court concluded the record reflected an "incomplete adjudicative process by the jury rather than an erroneous one" and it remanded the case for retrial. Id. at 884.
Of particular importance in the Prendergast case is the court's recognition of when juror testimony is not admissible.
If the issue were whether a verdict may be overturned because it was induced by the jury's misunderstanding of the court's instructions, rule 606(b) would render juror testimony inadmissible for purposes of achieving that result. The situation to which that rule of testimonial exclusion applies, however, presupposes that the jury has in fact responded to the fact-finding process entrusted to it and returned a finding on the issue which was submitted. Once that finding has been solemnized in a formal verdict
Page 1 2 3 Iowa Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|