Opinion ID: 1983749
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Jury Instructions Standard of Review

Text: The issue of proximate cause is ordinarily a question of fact to be submitted to the jury. It is necessary for the trial judge to instruct the jury properly upon that concept. Culver v. Bennett, 588 A.2d at 1098; Boyd v. Hammond, Del.Supr., 187 A.2d 413, 416 (1963). The judgment in the trial court must be reversed if deficiencies in the instructions given by the trial judge undermined the jury's ability to perform its duty intelligently in returning a verdict. Culver v. Bennett, 588 A.2d at 1098. The Delaware comparative negligence statute states unambiguously that the plaintiffs' damages are to be diminished by the plaintiffs' negligence. 10 Del.C. § 8132. In this case, the Superior Court erroneously refused to instruct the jury on the issue of the plaintiffs' contributory negligence but, nevertheless, reduced the plaintiffs' damages by the percentage of causation the jury attributed to each decedent's cigarette smoking. This constituted legal error. Id.; Culver v. Bennett, Del.Supr., 588 A.2d 1094 (1991). The judgments of the Superior Court must, therefore, be reversed.