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Voight v. Colorado Mountain Club8/1/1991
Plaintiff, Katherine Voight, appeals the judgment notwithstanding the verdict entered by the trial court in favor of defendant, Colorado Mountain Club (CMC). She also appeals the trial court's refusal to admit certain evidence and dismissal of her punitive damages claim. CMC cross-appeals several rulings of the trial court. We affirm the trial court's dismissal of the punitive damages claim. The judgment notwithstanding the verdict is reversed and the trial court is directed to reinstate the jury verdict and enter judgment thereon.
On December 16, 1987, Voight participated in a CMC sponsored hike on Loveland Pass. While on the return part of her hiking trip, she became separated from other members of the group and remained the rest of that day and night on the mountain. The next morning she was located by an alpine rescue squad and flown to a hospital for emergency treatment. She suffered from frostbite and incurred serious physical injuries which resulted in amputation of her toes and other parts of her feet.
Voight alleged negligence against CMC and CMC's designated leader of the hike, Carl Hinrichs. Voight and Hinrichs settled their claims prior to trial.
After a 12-day trial, the jury determined that CMC was 70 percent negligent and Voight was 30 percent negligent and assessed her damages at $600,000. The trial court, however, granted defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and determined that plaintiff was, as a matter of law, as negligent as defendant and that, therefore, she was barred from recovering damages.
I.
Voight argues that the trial court erred in entering judgment notwithstanding the verdict. We agree.
A judgment notwithstanding the verdict is justified only if the evidence, considered in the light most favorable to the verdict, is so overwhelmingly in favor of the movant as to admit of no other reasonable conclusion. Wesley v. United Services Automobile Ass'n, 694 P.2d 855 (Colo. App. 1984). Only if reasonable persons could not reach the same conclusion as the jury can a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict based on insufficiency of the evidence be granted. Alzado v. Blinder, Robinson & Co., 752 P.2d 544 (Colo. 1988).
Generally, the jury is responsible for deciding the comparative negligence of the parties. Section 13-21-111(4), C.R.S. (1984 Cum. Supp.); Holmes v. Gamble, 655 P.2d 405 (Colo. 1982). Only in the clearest of cases, in which the facts and the inferences therefrom are essentially undisputed and reasonable minds can draw only one inference from them, should relative fault be determined as a matter of law. Transamerica Insurance Co. v. Pueblo Gas & Fuel Co., 33 Colo. App. 92, 519 P.2d 1201 (1973).
For these reasons, contrary to defendant's argument, in addressing such a motion, the trial court should not evaluate the evidence as would an additional juror, but rather must review the facts and inferences therefrom in a light which most favorably supports the jury's verdict. Wesley v. United Services Automobile Ass'n, supra.
Applying this criteria here, we conclude that the trial court erred in setting aside the jury's verdict. Evidence presented at trial was indicative of negligence by both plaintiff and defendant; hence, determination of any negligence and its relative allocation was a matter for the jury.
First, as to Hinrichs, the leader of the hike, the evidence demonstrates that, despite stringent rules to the contrary, he failed to keep the group together during the hike and did not wat
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