Opinion ID: 2300624
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Jury Instruction Standard

Text: Pursuant to G.L.1956 § 8-2-38, a trial justice is required to instruct the jury on the law to be applied to the issues raised by the parties. Malinowski v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 792 A.2d 50, 55 (R.I.2002) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Gianquitti v. Atwood Medical Associates, Ltd., 973 A.2d 580, 594 (R.I.2009). However, it is well established that a jury instruction must be applicable to the facts that have been adduced in evidence and that a request for instructions is properly denied when there is no basis for such instruction in the evidence. Brodeur v. Desrosiers, 505 A.2d 418, 422 (R.I.1986); see also Gianquitti, 973 A.2d at 594; Morinville v. Old Colony Co-operative Newport National Bank, 522 A.2d 1218, 1222 (R.I.1987) (stating that, when instructing a jury, the trial justice must frame the issues in such a way that the instructions reasonably set forth all of the propositions of law that relate to material issues of fact which the evidence tends to support (internal quotation marks omitted)). In our review of jury instructions, we will examine them in their entirety to ascertain the manner in which a jury of ordinary intelligent lay people would have understood them. Lett, 35 A.3d at 874 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Botelho, 970 A.2d at 545; Parrella v. Bowling, 796 A.2d 1091, 1101 (R.I.2002). C