Opinion ID: 203566
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Use of the Travelers Settlement

Text: Doe asserts that, even if the amount of the Travelers settlement had been properly admitted for purposes of negating her allegations of bad faith delay, National Union made improper use of the settlement amount in closing argument to suggest that Doe and her counsel were greedy. Counsel for National Union argued that after it had offered Doe the policy limit of $100,000, [t]he plaintiffs kept litigating to get more money. I'm not suggesting that's wrong. That's zealous advocacy. But you certainly cannot hold National Union liable for the plaintiff's decision or her lawyer's decision to press for more money. And in the end they got more money. J.A. at 2958. National Union went on to suggest that Brody was greedy in rejecting National Union's offer: Is there any reason that Mr. Brody would have to reject the offer? Of course. If he accepted the offer, ... he would have recovered for his client a hundred thousand dollars. And he would have gotten, or he and his partners would have shared $35,000. They put a lot of time and effort into this case. So they pressed on. And at the end of the day  well, we're not at the end of the day. But as we sit here today they've collected a million dollars, over a million for their client, over 40,000 [sic] to share amongst themselves, but they're here asking you for more money. J.A. at 2959-60. While the use of the Travelers settlement for this purpose was likely improper, Doe made no objection to National Union's argument. We review allegations of trial misconduct forfeited due to the lack of any timely objection only for plain error. See Fonten Corp. v. Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc., 469 F.3d 18, 21-22 (1st Cir.2006); Smith v. Kmart Corp., 177 F.3d 19, 25 (1st Cir.1999) ([W]hen no timely objection is made, claims of improper closing argument are forfeited, not waived, and thus amenable to review for plain error.). Under plain error review, we will consider a forfeited objection only if: (1) an error was committed; (2) the error was plain (i.e. obvious and clear under current law); (3) the error was prejudicial (i.e. affected substantial rights); and (4) review is needed to prevent a miscarriage of justice. To merit reversal, the error must have resulted in a miscarriage of justice or seriously affected the fairness, integrity or public reputation of the judicial proceedings. Plain error is a rare species in civil litigation, encompassing only those errors that reach the pinnacle of fault envisioned by the standard set forth above. Smith, 177 F.3d at 26 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). Doe has not established that the error in the use of the settlement evidence was sufficiently grave to satisfy plain error review. At a minimum, Doe has failed to show that the improper remarks by National Union were so grave as to seriously impugn the fairness and integrity of judicial proceedings. Accordingly, the district court did not err in denying Doe's motion for a new trial.