Case Title: Munger v. SIAC

Citation: 243 Or. 419, 414 P.2d 328

Docket Number: 

State: oregon

Court: Oregon Supreme Court

Date: 1966-05-11T00:00:00Z

Document:
Affirmed May 11, 1966.
*420 Clifford B. Olsen, Portland, argued the cause for appellant. On the brief were Franklin, Olsen, Bennett & Des Brisay, Portland
O.E. McAdams, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, Salem, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Robert Y. Thornton, Attorney General, Salem, and Wallace Carpenter and John R. McCulloch, Jr., Assistant Attorneys General, Salem.
Before McALLISTER, Chief Justice, and PERRY, DENECKE, HOLMAN and SCHWAB, Justices.
AFFIRMED.
SCHWAB, J. (Pro Tempore).
Plaintiff appealed to the circuit court from an order of the defendant State Industrial Accident Commission denying plaintiff's petition for increased compensation on account of aggravation of an injury. He appeals to this court from judgment entered on a jury verdict. The issue on appeal is: Must the minimum legal number of jurors required for a valid verdict, be it special or general,[1] be the same jurors voting similarly on each separate issue demanding resolution?
After it was instructed, the jury retired with a jury form which contained three questions:
The jury first answered the three questions put to it as follows: Question 1: Yes. Question 2: No. Question 3:70%. The jury was polled and the court refused to receive the verdict when the poll showed that the nine jurors who had answered Question 1 "yes" were not the same nine who had voted for the answer inserted in response to Question 3.
The jury was returned to the jury room with a new verdict form. Thereafter the jury returned a second verdict in which they gave the same answers to Questions *422 1 and 2 but gave 50% as the answer to Question 3. The jury was again polled and it was determined that the same nine jurors that answered affirmatively to Question 1 had also voted for the disability percentage inserted in Question 3. This verdict was received by the court and upon it the court subsequently entered its judgment. Plaintiff contends that the court erred in refusing to receive the verdict first returned by the jury in the above cause.
1. Two jurors who disagreed with the majority's view that the injury had become aggravated agreed with seven other jurors that the disability was equivalent to 70% loss function of an arm. Yet an order was made by the commission on December 9, 1963, awarding Munger for a disability equivalent to 35% loss function of an arm. No appeal having been taken from that order, it is conclusive as to the disability on that date. Grunnett v. State Ind. Acc. Com., 108 Or 178, 184, 215 P 881. The conclusion of the two jurors was therefore inconsistent.
The Oregon Constitution provides that, "in civil cases three-fourths of the jury may render a verdict." Art. VII, § 5. In construing this provision of the constitution, we held in Clark v. Strain et al, 212 Or 357, 364, 319 P2d 940:
This court interpreted the same section of the constitution again in the case of Shultz v. Monterey, 232 Or 421, 424, 375 P2d 829, saying:
The appellant claims that since both decisions cited above dealt with "general" rather than "special" verdicts, they are not controlling in the case at bar.
2. ORS 656.290 (1), the code provision that governed appeals to the circuit court in Workmen's Compensation cases, provided[2] as follows:
That section has been construed to mean that this type of action is in the nature of a special proceeding with the verdict of the jury corresponding to a special verdict of the jury in other law actions. Paul et al v. Industrial Acc. Com., 127 Or 599, 610, 272 P 267, 273 P 337.
An integrated verdict of the type presented here  one in which the answer to a question is dependent on *424 the answer to a previous question and both are necessary to the determination of the final verdict  does not differ in principle from a general verdict. Concerning special verdicts, this court has stated:
3. Only four jurisdictions have considered this question. All but one have declared that the minimum legal number of jurors required must be the same jurors voting similarly on each question.
In Plaster v. Akron Union Depot Co., 101 Ohio App 27, 137 NE2d 624, the same nine jurors who signed a special interrogatory finding the defendant guilty of negligence did not sign the general verdict. The Ohio court stated:
Wisconsin has a statute, § 270.25 (1), which provides in part that "if more than one question must be answered to arrive at a verdict on the same cause of action, the same five-sixths of the jurors must agree on all such questions." Wisconsin courts have interpreted the section to require that to have a good verdict *425 the same jurors must concur in the answer to all questions which are necessary to support a judgment. E.g., Christensen v. Schwartz, 198 Wis 222, 222 NW 231, 223 NW 839 (1928); Hupf v. State Farm Mut. Ins. Co., 12 Wis2d 176, 107 NW2d 185 (1961).
In a similar case, a California court commented on the Wisconsin rule:
Our attention has been directed to only one jurisdiction in which a contrary rule has been established. The court in Bullock v. Yakima Valley Transp. Co., 108 Wash 413, 184 P 641, 187 P 410 (1919) upheld a trial court's instruction that any ten of the jury could answer any one of the interrogatories. The question was given little discussion and no authorities were cited. This was an early decision. It is noted and the result rejected in each of the jurisdictions that has ruled on the question.
Our decisions supra on general verdicts contain no language limiting the rule to general verdicts only. The reasons for requiring a general verdict to be consistent are equally valid as to special verdicts in which answers to more than one question are necessary to establish liability. Clark v. Strain et al, 212 Or 357, supra, cites with approval the Wisconsin case of Christenson v. Peterson, supra, in which the Wisconsin court stated:
The argument that to require the same jurors to agree on each issue submitted for resolution would so complicate the jury's work as to make a valid special verdict exceedingly difficult to obtain does not stand close scrutiny. Even in a simple negligence case, if liability is not admitted, the same jurors must concur on at least three issues  negligence, injury and damages. There is no difference in principle between the process in which a jury makes a general finding (general verdict) based on a series of special findings, and the process in which the court makes a general finding which is based upon a series of special findings (special verdict) by the jury. If the findings are inconsistent, a verdict based on them is invalid. The principle being the same, inconsistency ought not be allowed in one process and not the other.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
[1]  ORS 17.405. "The verdict of a jury is either general or special. A general verdict is that by which the jury pronounce generally upon all or any of the issues, either in favor of the plaintiff of defendant. A special verdict is that by which the jury find the facts only, leaving the judgment to the court."
[2]  ORS 656.290 was repealed by Oregon Laws 1965, ch 285 § 95.