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Kelly v. Levandoski4/18/2005
e been a legal conclusion. In addition, the other three topics would have required Braje to draw conclusions based on application of the relevant law to the facts of the case, and as such they were legal conclusions.
We follow Vaughn and affirm the trial court's exclusion of those legal conclusions. See 777 N.E.2d 1110. Vaughn, a construction worker , sued his employer and two other companies after he was injured while constructing a coal preparation plant. When the defendants filed motions for summary judgment, Vaughn designated in opposition to summary judgment an affidavit from a construction expert. The expert's affidavit included in pertinent part the following statements:
12. . . . Failure to have a structural member and a railing around the top of the heavy media sump rendered the heavy media sump unreasonably dangerous.
In my opinion, failure to use safety engineering relating to the design of the heavy media sump proximately resulted in injuries to Mr. Vaughn.
13. . . . Defendant Daniels failed to use reasonable care by not applying the above safety engineering principles resulting in its failure to incorporate a structural member and handrail into the design of the heavy media sump. . . .
14 Based upon the discovery and documents, it is my opinion Defendant Daniels knew or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known that persons, such as Mr. Vaughn, intended to do work, maintenance, or stand in the top of the heavy media sump, as the heavy media sump was designed to have a ladder for access. . . .
15. Based upon my engineering and construction management expertise and review of the documents listed above, it is my opinion Defendants Daniels failed to use reasonable care by not having construction management plan and/or a process of plant assembly plan for the design.
16. . . . The failure to have a construction management plan and/or a process of plant assembly plan for the design of the Cannelburg Project site proximately resulted in Mr. Vaughn's injuries.
17. Based upon engineering and construction management expertise and review of the documents listed above, it is my opinion Defendant Solar as owner of the property in question failed to use reasonable care by not requiring and/or participating in a construction management plan and/or a process of plant assembly plan for the design of the Cannelburg Project. Failure to use such reasonable care proximately resulted in injury to Mr. Vaughn.
Id. at 1118-120. We held those statements were inadmissible as "improper legal conclusions . . . relating to proximate cause and reasonable care," which issues were to be decided by the jury when determining whether the defendants had been negligent. Id. at 1122. Similarly, the legal conclusions about which Kelly wanted Braje to give his opinions were the legal conclusions the jury needed to reach in deciding whether to find a contract between Kelly and Levandoski and whether to award damages to Levandoski. The trial court did not err when it sustained Levandoski's objection to these categories of testimony. Id.
4. Jury Instructions
Instruction of the jury lies within the discretion of the trial court, and we reverse only for an abuse of that discretion. Armstrong v. Federated Mut. Ins. Co., 785 N.E.2d 284, 287 (Ind. Ct. App. 2003), reh'g denied, trans. denied 804 N.E.2d 750 (Ind. 2003). Instructions should inform the jury on the law applicable to the facts of the case without misleading the jury and should enable the jury to understand the case in a manner that allows the jury to arrive at a fair, just, and correct verdict. Id. Instructions given to a jury mu
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