Opinion ID: 1841842
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The John Wayne Charge

Text: We understand and appreciate Appellant's concern with respect to this dramatization in which the independent contractor (the oil well fire fighter) clearly assumed the risk of injury to himself and his employees, particularly where the hypothetical contained no hint of hidden dangers known to the landowner, but unknown to the invitee contractor. If the trial court had concluded its charge with the telling of this story, we would not hesitate to accept this allegation of error; but it is clear from the record that the follow-up instructions were specifically designed to dispel any undue restrictions on the jury's factfinding prerogatives regarding the respective hidden danger contentions of the parties. We hold that, when the charge is considered as a whole, this challenged portion of the charge does not constitute reversible error. Alabama Power Co. v. Tatum, 293 Ala. 500, 306 So.2d 251 (1975). Moreover, we are reluctant to be hypercitical of the trial court's use of commonplace examples in explaining abstract legal principles. Well chosen hypotheticals can become the meat and blood that enflesh the bare bones of legal abstractions, giving life, and thus practical application, to the whole body of the trial court's instructions to the jury. To be sure, when the trial court uses such examples, care must be taken not to cross the forbidden line that separates legal instructions from comments on the evidence. In the instant case, the trial judge trod near that line of separation by giving a classical assumption-of-the-risk-of-injury example, but avoided its encroachment by carefully preserving the jury's factfinding prerogatives. After all, reversible error does not find its source in mere imperfection, for litigants are not entitled to a perfect trial, only a fair one.