Opinion ID: 2042759
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: Reassembly

Text: The sellers contend that since the purchaser's motion to correct the verdict forms was not filed until 13 days after they were returned, the motion was untimely under Neb.Rev.Stat. § 25-1142 and 25-1143 (Reissue 1989). Section 25-1142 defines a new trial as a reexamination in the same court of an issue of fact after a verdict by a jury, report of a referee, or a decision by the court. In these cases the purchaser sought not a reexamination of an issue of fact but, rather, an investigation into a possible clerical error of the jury and the correction of any such error prior to any judgments having been rendered. Therefore, the motion was not one for a new trial and was not subject to the 10-day limit on the filing of new trial motions imposed by § 25-1143. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 25-1123 (Reissue 1989) provides that [i]f ... the verdict be defective in form only, the same may, with the assent of the jury before they are discharged, be corrected by the court. The essential requirement of that statute is that a verdict which appears to be defective in form not be corrected without consent of the jury. The requirement that assent occur before the jury is discharged is to assure that the jury is assembled together and agrees that there was in fact a defect in the form of its verdict. This requirement is met by reassembly of the jury. While an 82-day delay might in some instances make reassembly impossible, such did not prove to be the situation in these cases. Thus, as correction of the jury forms was requested by the reassembled jury, the corrections were made with the jury's assent before its operative discharge. At first blush, it might appear this ruling is at variance with the rationale behind the rule adopted in part III(5) above concerning motions for mistrial based on an opponent's improper argument. The difference between the two situations, however, is that while a party controls whether and when to move for a mistrial, no party controls the commission of a clerical error by a jury. Nonetheless, the sellers, citing Rahmig v. Mosley Machinery Co., 226 Neb. 423, 412 N.W.2d 56 (1987), argue that Neb.Rev. Stat. § 27-606 (Reissue 1989) prohibits the trial court's actions. Section 27-606 reads, in pertinent part: (2) Upon an inquiry into the validity of a verdict or indictment, a juror may not testify as to any matter or statement occurring during the course of the jury's deliberations or to the effect of anything upon his or any other juror's mind or emotions as influencing him to assent to or dissent from the verdict or indictment or concerning his mental processes in connection therewith, except that a juror may testify on the question whether extraneous prejudicial information was improperly brought to the jury's attention or whether any outside influence was improperly brought to bear upon any juror. Nor may his affidavit or evidence of any statement by him indicating an effect of this kind be received for these purposes. (Emphasis supplied.) The sellers contend that, as interpreted by Rahmig, the acceptance of the jury foreman's affidavit was barred under the last sentence of § 27-606(2) and that therefore the reassembly of the jury was improper. However, Rahmig held only that § 27-606(2) prohibits the use of a juror's affidavit to impeach a verdict on the basis of jury motives, methods, misunderstandings, thought processes, or discussions during deliberations which might enter into the verdict. It does not address the issue now before us, namely, whether a juror's affidavit may be used to establish the occurrence of a clerical error by transposition in the rendition of the verdicts against multiple defendants in a consolidated trial. The final sentence of § 27-606(2) does not bar juror affidavits in all situations. It merely makes the restrictions on juror testimony announced in the first sentence of subsection (2) applicable to juror affidavits or other evidence of juror statements. In other words, it renders inadmissible an affidavit containing information to which a juror could not testify. The affidavit in this case did not attempt to impeach the amount of the damages awarded. Instead, it declared that a clerical mistake was made in filling out the separate verdict forms: 3. At the end of the deliberations, we determined that the total amount of damages sustained by [the purchaser] as a result of the two [sellers'] actions was $119,800.00. This was the unanimous agreement of all the jurors. We then apportioned $100,800.00 in damages against [the corporate seller] and $9,000.00 against [the partnership seller]. 4. In completing the verdict forms, I [the foreman] inadvertently placed the $110,800.00 figure on the verdict form for [the partnership seller] ... and the $9,000.00 figure on the verdict form for [the corporate seller].... In so doing, I placed the allocated damage figure on the wrong verdict forms. Section 27-606, enacted by the Legislature in 1975 Neb. Laws, L.B. 279, is similar to Fed.R.Evid. 606. The first sentence of § 27-606(2) is identical to the first sentence of rule 606(b) as it was adopted by Congress in 1975. (In 1987, rule 606 was amended to make it gender neutral; however, no substantive change to the rule has been made since its adoption.) See 3 J. Weinstein & M. Berger, Weinstein's Evidence ¶ 606 (1990). The second sentence of § 27-606(2) is identical to the second sentence of the initial House of Representatives version of rule 606(b), a version never adopted by the entire Congress. See 3 J. Weinstein & M. Berger, supra, ¶¶ 606 and 606[08]. As adopted by Congress, the second sentence of rule 606(b) reads: Nor may his affidavit or evidence of any statement by him concerning a matter about which he would be precluded from testifying be received for these purposes. (Emphasis supplied.) 28 U.S.C. app. rule 606 (1982). The differences in the adopted and unadopted versions of the federal rule are cosmetic, not substantive. Decisions from other jurisdictions with similar rules are also enlightening. In Prendergast v. Smith Laboratories, Inc., 440 N.W.2d 880 (Iowa 1989), the Iowa Supreme Court held that Iowa's version of rule 606(b) did not bar the receipt of juror testimony to demonstrate a mistake in the completion of special verdict forms. The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that Colorado's version of rule 606(b) does not preclude inquiry into possible clerical mistakes in filling out the dollar amounts for two separate causes of action on the wrong verdict forms. Kading v. Kading, 683 P.2d 373 (Colo.App.1984). In Attridge v. Cencorp Div. of Dover Tech. Intern., 836 F.2d 113 (2d Cir.1987), the court approved of the district court's reformation of a verdict based on posttrial interviews of the jurors, holding that rule 606(b) did not apply in situations where juror evidence is received to show that the verdict delivered was not that actually agreed upon. 836 F.2d at 116. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled similarly. See U.S. v. Dotson, 817 F.2d 1127 (5th Cir.1987), modified on other grounds 821 F.2d 1034. Such a view of rule 606(b) and the various state versions of that rule are also shared by commentators. See, e.g., 3 J. Weinstein & M. Berger, supra, ¶ 606[04]; 1 G. Joseph & S. Saltzburg, Evidence in America: The Federal Rules in the States § 40.3 (1987). However, at least two states with versions of rule 606 have concluded otherwise. To admit affidavits of jurors to correct a mistake in recording the verdict would permit all losing parties to attack verdicts, thereby vitiating the finality and definitiveness of a judgment. Cyr v. Michaud, 454 A.2d 1376, 1383 (Me.1983). Regardless of the rule in other jurisdictions, in Maryland it is well settled that a juror cannot be heard to impeach his verdict, whether the jury conduct objected to be misbehavior or mistake. Oxtoby v. McGowan, 294 Md. 83, 101, 447 A.2d 860, 870 (1982). These holdings are tempered by the fact that they did not arise out of factual circumstances analogous to those presently before us. In Cyr, supra, there was an attempt to show that the jury had in fact meant to award a substantially lower amount than was awarded. This allegedly occurred when the jury entered a $20,000 figure into a verdict form which asked by what amount total damages in the case (allegedly found to be $100,000 by the jurors) were to be reduced. The affidavits purported to show that the jury intended the award itself to be $20,000, not $80,000 (arrived at by reducing $100,000 by $20,000). In Oxtoby, supra, the appellants were attempting to introduce evidence of juror coercion and juror use of a textbook not admitted at trial. Prior to the enactment of § 27-606, Nebraska adhered to the general rule that affidavits or other sworn statements of jurors will not be received to impeach or explain a verdict, to show on what grounds it was rendered, to show a mistake in it, to show the jurors misunderstood the charge of the court, or to show they mistook the law or the result of the finding because such matters inhere in the verdict. Selders v. Armentrout, 192 Neb. 291, 294, 220 N.W.2d 222, 224 (1974). The general rule that juror affidavits will not be allowed to impeach a verdict dates back centuries. Prior to 1785, there was no common-law rule explicitly prohibiting the receipt of juror testimony. See McDonald v. Pless, 238 U.S. 264, 35 S.Ct. 783, 59 L.Ed. 1300 (1915). In 1785, however, Lord Mansfield refused to accept juror affidavits which indicated that the jury had decided a case by the casting of lots. See Vaise v. Delaval, 1 T.R. 11 (1785), reprinted in 99 Eng.Rep. 944. As stated by the U.S. Supreme Court in McDonald, supra at 264 U.S. at 268, 35 S.Ct. at 784, That ruling soon came to be almost universally followed in England and in this country. McDonald, which dealt with an alleged quotient verdict, has become notable for the following passage, relied on in part by the sellers in this case: If the facts were as stated in the affidavit, the jury adopted an arbitrary and unjust method in arriving at their verdict, and the defendant ought to have had relief, if the facts could have been proved by witnesses who were competent to testify in a proceeding to set aside the verdict. But let it once be established that verdicts solemnly made and publicly returned into court can be attacked and set aside on the testimony of those who took part in their publication and all verdicts could be, and many would be, followed by an inquiry in the hope of discovering something which might invalidate the finding. Jurors would be harassed and beset by the defeated party in an effort to secure from them evidence of facts which might establish misconduct sufficient to set aside a verdict. If evidence thus secured could be thus used, the result would be to make what was intended to be a private deliberation, the constant subject of public investigationto the destruction of all frankness and freedom of discussion and conference. McDonald at 238 U.S. at 267-68, 35 S.Ct. at 784, quoted in, e.g., Rahmig v. Mosley Machinery Co., 226 Neb. 423, 412 N.W.2d 56 (1987), and Attridge v. Cencorp. Div. of Dover Tech. Intern., 836 F.2d 113 (2d Cir. 1987). However, Vaise, supra, and McDonald, supra, were attempts to impeach the mental process by which those verdicts were rendered, not examples of clerical errors made in the filling out of a verdict form. Many courts, without discussion of rule 606(b), have specifically recognized that postverdict evidence from jurors of clerical errors made in the rendition of a verdict may be admitted. See, e.g., Erickson by Erickson v. Hammermeister, 458 N.W.2d 172 (Minn.App.1990); McStocker v. Kolment, 160 A.D.2d 980, 554 N.Y.S.2d 702 (1990); Colling v. Avon Disposal, Inc., 179 Mich.App. 796, 446 N.W.2d 361 (1989); Bianchi v. Nordby, 409 N.W.2d 835 (Minn. 1987); Rodriguez v. Baker, 91 A.D.2d 143, 457 N.Y.S.2d 801 (1983); Rose v. Thau, 45 A.D.2d 182, 357 N.Y.S.2d 201 (1974); Kink v. Combs, 28 Wis.2d 65, 135 N.W.2d 789 (1965); Southern Pacific Railroad Co. v. Mitchell, 80 Ariz. 50, 292 P.2d 827 (1956); Hopkinson's Admx. et als. v. S. D. Stocker, 116 Vt. 98, 70 A.2d 587 (1950); Young v. United States, 163 F.2d 187 (10th Cir. 1947), cert. denied 332 U.S. 770, 68 S.Ct. 83, 92 L.Ed. 355 and 334 U.S. 859, 68 S.Ct. 1533, 92 L.Ed. 1779 (1948). The statement of the Vermont Supreme Court in Hopkinson's Admx. et als., supra 116 Vt. at 101-02, 70 A.2d at 589, is as sound now as it was when announced over 40 years ago: The general principle that the statements of the jurors will not be received to establish their own misconduct is, as a rule, considered as not preventing the reception of their evidence as to what really was the verdict agreed upon, in order to prove that, through mistake or otherwise, it has not been correctly expressed. We therefore conclude the trial court properly considered and acted upon the foreman's affidavit.