Opinion ID: 1179471
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jury instructions summarizing claims of the parties

Text: [1] This court has held that an instruction summarizing contentions of the parties is not reversible error when it is followed by cautionary language which explains to the jury proper use of the instruction for clarification of plaintiff's contentions, despite the possibility that there may be no evidence to support particular contentions. Ketchum v. Wood, 73 Wn.2d 335, 438 P.2d 596 (1968); Mulkey v. Spokane, P. & S. Ry., 65 Wn.2d 116, 122, 396 P.2d 158 (1964). The Court of Appeals in this case cited neither Ketchum nor Mulkey, but relied instead on Young v. Group Health Coop., 85 Wn.2d 332, 534 P.2d 1349 (1975) and Chase v. Knabel, 46 Wash. 484, 90 P. 642 (1907). However, neither of those cases involved a challenge to instructions summarizing the parties' claims. This court in Young discussed a proximate cause instruction, an evidentiary question, and the wording of the verdict form. Young, 85 Wn.2d at 336-40. The court incidentally stated that verdict forms, like jury instructions, can encompass only those theories of liability supported by substantial evidence. Young, 85 Wn.2d at 339. In Chase, the plaintiff sued the defendant restaurant for assault and race discrimination. The jury returned a general verdict in favor of the plaintiff. The issue on appeal was whether there was sufficient evidence to submit the race discrimination claim to the jury. This court found insufficient evidence on that issue, and reversed the jury's verdict because it was not possible to determine whether the jurors had relied on the improper theory. Chase, 46 Wash. at 488. Unlike Dr. Cooke's challenge to instruction 7, the defendant's challenge in Chase was not to instructions which simply summarized various theories under which the defendant was alleged to have been negligent. The challenge was instead to the elements instruction which defined a separate legal claim for the jury. This court recognized that distinction in Mulkey by noting that the trial court gave no specific instruction on the plaintiff's unsupported lookout theory, but merely mentioned the theory as one of the plaintiff's claims. Mulkey, 65 Wn.2d at 122. Similarly, in this case the trial court did not give separate instructions on each of the claims described in instruction 7. The court simply defined for the jury, in general terms, the legal elements of a medical malpractice claim. Moreover, instruction 8 (WPI 20.05) unequivocally pointed out that the foregoing (instruction 7) was merely a summary of the claims of the parties, was not evidence, and was not to be considered unless established by the evidence. Instruction 7 clearly stated that plaintiff claims that the defendant was negligent and that defendant denies these claims. The cases cited by Respondent Cooke do not support the Court of Appeals decision. Those cases involved error in a trial court's failure to instruct where particular claims were supported by the evidence. The cases hold that a plaintiff is entitled to have the jury instructed only on claims or theories supported by substantial evidence. See Dabroe v. Rhodes Co., 64 Wn.2d 431, 392 P.2d 317 (1964); Woods v. Goodson, 55 Wn.2d 687, 349 P.2d 731 (1960); Pearce v. Motel 6, Inc., 28 Wn. App. 474, 624 P.2d 215, review denied, 95 Wn.2d 1024 (1981). The issue here is not whether petitioner was entitled to any particular instruction, but whether respondent was prejudiced by the summary of contentions instruction. Mulkey and Ketchum hold that no prejudice occurs with such a clearly identified summary instruction with the addition of cautionary language such as that in instruction 8. The issues in this case are substantially similar to those in Mulkey and Ketchum. The Court of Appeals decision in this case is in error to the extent that it held instruction 7 to be prejudicial because some of the claims listed were not supported by the evidence.