Opinion ID: 674129
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jury Instructions on Duress

Text: 14 McGee objects to the manner in which the district court employed the jury, and to the language of Interrogatory 9 in particular. McGee objects to the procedure used by the trial court of submitting special interrogatories to the jury and then determining the questions of law based on the jury's responses. Here, the jury found the essential facts, then the court determined, as a matter of law, that the facts could not support a claim of duress because McGee in effect ratified the release by his two years of silence. We have previously approved the procedure employed by the district court, W.R. Grimshaw Co. v. Nevil C. Withrow Co., 248 F.2d 896 (8th Cir. 1957) (applying Arkansas law), cert. denied, 356 U.S. 912 (1958), and do not consider its use error in this case. 15 McGee also argues that the district court erred in issuing Interrogatory 9, which asked if McGee attempted to avoid the release within a reasonable time after his November 1988 election. Appellant argues that in this context, Interrogatory 9 told the jury when to start the clock on a reasonable time. This claim fails because McGee did not preserve this objection for appeal, and even if he had, the jury instruction was not prejudicial towards him. The district court has wide discretion in its formulation of jury instructions, Brown v. Stites Concrete, Inc., 994 F.2d 553, 559 (8th Cir. 1993) (en banc). We will not disturb a judgment unless those instructions fail to fairly and adequately state the applicable law. City of Malden, Mo. v. Union Elec. Co., 887 F.2d 157, 163 (8th Cir. 1989). Here, we cannot say that the district court abused its broad discretion by including November 1988 in Interrogatory 9.