Opinion ID: 1355412
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Prejudicial Effect of the Combined Errors

Text: Taken in isolation, neither error was prejudicial. Given a properly constructed special verdict form, a jury would presumably have reached the death-in-fact question, notwithstanding the erroneous definition of inexplicably absent contained in Jury Instruction 22. As we have discussed, Instruction 22 made the timing of the presumption procedure important; but if both Question 1 and Question 2 directed the jury to consider Question 3, this issue would have become irrelevant. The jury would have considered whether the plaintiff had proven actual death by circumstantial evidence regardless of whether the presumption never arose or whether it arose but was later rebutted, thereby making the incorrect definition of inexplicably absent harmless. Similarly, if Jury Instruction 22 had not contained the erroneous definition of inexplicably absent, it is likely that the error in the special verdict form would not have been prejudicial. By moving the timing question to the forefront of its deliberations, the erroneous definition served to logjam the jury's decision. It raised an impermissibly high hurdle to raise the presumption of death in the first instance. Without that instruction, it is certainly possible that the jury would have proceeded to Question 2, which, unlike Question 1, left open the possibility of advancing to Question 3. Considered together, however, these errors were anything but harmless. The inaccurate statement of law contained in Jury Instruction 22, combined with the procedure set forth in the special verdict form, made the mechanics of the presumption procedure paramount and, as a result, prevented the jury from ever considering the plaintiff's alternative means of proving Beeler's death. A new trial is required.