Opinion ID: 2085710
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Final Arguments to the Jury.

Text: We have set forth that portion of the final argument to the jury made by plaintiff's counsel upon which the defendants base their motion for a new trial. In the eyes of the defendants' counsel, the summing up was calculated to induce the jury to ignore the evidence presented and render a verdict for plaintiff founded on sympathy. The content of the arguments by counsel to the jury is a matter resting in the discretion of the trial court. It is only when the trial court fails in its responsibility that this court will intrude. Masterson v. Chicago & N. W. R. Co. (1899), 102 Wis. 571, 78 N. W. 757. It is difficult to lay down precise standards which will successfully separate fair argument from unfair argument. We are not prepared to strike down all colorful, forensic thrusts before the jury. Oral argument to the jury need not be confined to the sterile reiteration of the testimony which was presented. Counsel have the right to analyze and exhort. As long ago as 1878, this court recognized that counsel in argument should be given the very fullest freedom of speech. Brown v. Swineford (1878), 44 Wis. 282, 293. There is a point when enthusiastic advocacy becomes an appeal to prejudice. It is the burden of the trial court to make sure the arguments do not exceed the bounds of fairness. See DeRousseau v. Chicago, St. P., M. & O. R. Co. (1949), 256 Wis. 19, 27, 39 N. W. (2d) 764; Pecor v. Home Indemnity Co. (1940), 234 Wis. 407, 418, 291 N. W 313; Markowitz v. Milwaukee E. R. & L. Co. (1939), 230 Wis. 312, 320, 284 N. W. 31. Cf. Halsted v. Kosnar (1963), 18 Wis. (2d) 348, 118 N. W. (2d) 864. In the instant case, the trial court did not see fit to criticize the argument of the plaintiff's counsel, and we are not persuaded that the trial court was clearly in error in this regard.