Opinion ID: 2220877
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: seatbelt instructions

Text: Plaintiff also claims the trial court erred in instructing the jury on nonuse of seatbelts for mitigation of damages because defendant provided no evidence regarding the causal relationship between the accident and the injuries plaintiff sustained. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 39-6,103.08 (Reissue 1988) provided: Evidence that a person was not wearing a seat belt at the time he or she was injured shall not be admissible in regard to the issue of liability or proximate cause, but may be admissible as evidence concerning mitigation of damages, except that it shall not reduce recovery for damages by more than five percent. A number of states allow evidence of a plaintiff's failure to wear a seatbelt for mitigation of damages, but only when the defendant has demonstrated a causal connection between the plaintiff's failure to wear an available seatbelt and the damages sustained by the plaintiff. See, Benner v. Interstate Container Corp., 73 F.R.D. 502 (1977) (instruction on nonuse of seatbelt for mitigation proper where expert testified plaintiff's injuries could have been avoided if she had worn seatbelt); Law v. Superior Court of State of Ariz., 157 Ariz. 147, 755 P.2d 1135 (1988) (under comparative negligence statute, nonuse of seatbelt can be considered and used to reduce damages if nonuse either caused or enhanced injuries to plaintiff); Foley v. City of West Allis, 113 Wis.2d 475, 335 N.W.2d 824 (1983) (failure to wear seatbelts not negligence per se, but proper to instruct jury where seatbelts are available and evidence indicates causal relationship between injuries sustained and failure to wear seatbelts). See, also, Knapp v. Shores, 550 So.2d 1155 (Fla.App. 1989) (error to instruct jury on seatbelt defense in absence of evidence that seatbelts were fully operational); Thomas v. Gottlieb, 520 So.2d 622 (Fla.App.1988). Although plaintiff testified at trial she was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident, defendant presented no evidence demonstrating the injuries sustained by plaintiff which were attributable to her failure to wear the seatbelt in the rear-end collision. In F.A.F. Motor Cars, Inc. v. Childers, 181 Ga.App. 821, 354 S.E.2d 6 (1987), the defendants asserted that the trial court had erred in failing to charge the jury with the requested seatbelt charge. The appellate court found it proper for the trial court to refuse to make the charge, even though the plaintiff had testified she was not wearing a seatbelt. The court reasoned that the defendants had not introduced evidence connecting the injuries of the plaintiff with her failure to wear a seatbelt. Thus, [defendants'] requested charge, which would have instructed the jury not to award any amount for injuries and damages sustained which were proximately caused by [plaintiff's] failure to wear a seat belt, was not adjusted to the evidence and the trial court did not err by refusing to so charge. Id. at 822, 354 S.E.2d at 8. Here, the instruction given to the jury on failure to wear a seatbelt for mitigation of damages required the jury to reduce damages if defendant proved that plaintiff was not wearing her seatbelt and that plaintiff's injuries would have been less if she had been wearing her seatbelt. However, no evidence was presented regarding the extent to which the injuries to plaintiff would have been diminished had she been wearing a seatbelt. Submission of an issue on which the evidence is insufficient to sustain an affirmative finding is, generally, prejudicial and results in a new trial. Jensen v. Archbishop Bergan Mercy Hosp., 236 Neb. 1, 459 N.W.2d 178 (1990). Since no evidence was provided indicating the causal relationship between plaintiff's failure to wear the seatbelt and the extent of injuries she sustained in the accident, the instruction was improper.