Opinion ID: 884422
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Submission of Survival Action to Jury

Text: Prior to the end of trial, the State apparently made a motion in the nature of a motion for a directed verdict, arguing that there was insufficient evidence to present Kimberly's survival action to the jury. The District Court denied the motion in chambers prior to convening court on the last morning of trial. The State contends that the court erred. A directed verdict is proper only when there is a complete absence of any evidence which would justify submitting an issue to a jury, and all inferences which can be drawn from the evidence must be considered in a light most favorable to the opposing party. Werre, 913 P.2d at 630 (citation omitted). Whether there is sufficient evidence to send a cause of action to the jury is a question of law. Collins v. Itoh (1972), 160 Mont. 461, 472, 503 P.2d 36, 42 (citation omitted). We review a district court's conclusion of law to determine whether the court's interpretation of the law is correct. Werre, 913 P.2d at 631. The State premises its argument that the survival action should not have gone to the jury on Starkenburg's failure to introduce medical evidence as to the cause or time of Kimberly's death; it points out that no testimony was presented regarding whether the gurgling noises April heard from Kimberly after Kimberly was shot the second time represented a sign of life. Accordingly, the State argues that [t]here was simply no evidence that Kim Starkenburg lived for any appreciable period of time after she was shot. We disagree. The record contains evidence that Kimberly remained kneeling beside Brenda and April after Corliss shot her and while he shot Brenda and April. Corliss then shot Kimberly a second time and she fell to the floor. Corliss subsequently fled from Farrington's residence and, when he had gone, April went to Kimberly's aid. According to April, she could hear gurgling sounds from Kimberly which sounded like she was trying to breathe, catch her breath. Starkenburg's evidence in support of the survival action and the length of time Kimberly survived was not particularly strong and the jury could well have chosen to reject it. The evidence was sufficient, however, to support a finding that Kimberly's death was not instantaneous and that she survived for more than a few seconds. See Burns, 313 P.2d at 1047; Dillon, 100 P. at 963. Moreover, the State cites to no authority under which a plaintiff in a survival action must present medical evidence to prove that death was not instantaneous or that the decedent survived for an appreciable amount of time. While the State correctly observes that, in Stephens, there was medical evidence that the decedent lived for a few seconds to a few minutes ( see Stephens, 503 P.2d at 670), nothing in Stephens requires, or even suggests, that evidence regarding the length of time between injury and death must be expert medical testimony. We hold that the District Court did not err in concluding that there was sufficient evidence to submit Kimberly's survival action to the jury and in denying the State's motion for a directed verdict.