Opinion ID: 2268935
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Application of CR 47.03

Text: In pertinent part, CR 47.03 provides that: 1) In civil cases each opposing side shall have three peremptory challenges, but co-parties having antagonistic interests shall have three peremptory challenges each. Generally, there are three elements to be considered in determining if coparties have antagonistic interests. They are 1) whether the coparties are charged with separate acts of negligence. Roberts v. Taylor, Ky., 339 S.W.2d 653 (1960) and Mackey v. Greenview Hosp., Inc., Ky.App., 587 S.W.2d 249 (1979); 2) whether they share a common theory of the case. Davenport v. Ephraim McDowell Mem'l Hosp., Inc., Ky.App., 769 S.W.2d 56 (1988); and 3) whether they have filed cross-claims. Davenport, supra . Additional important factors are whether the defendants are represented by separate counsel; whether the alleged acts of negligence occurred at different times; whether the defendants have individual theories of defense; and whether fault will be subject to apportionment. All of these factors are to be weighed by the trial court in determining if the defendants have antagonistic interests and thus are entitled to separate peremptory challenges. In this case, the trial judge correctly weighed the factors. The order of the trial judge explained as follows: Each party shall be entitled to four peremptory challenges during the jury selection process. It is not necessary that the cross-claim be asserted to establish antagonistic interests among the Defendants. Independent acts of negligence over a course of time are alleged against the respective Defendants, each of whom practices distinct medical specialties. Because their acts are independent and occurred at different times, their interests are necessarily antagonistic to each other and the Court intends to give the jury an apportionment instruction. Therefore, these Defendants, each of whom has separate counsel, do not constitute one party litigant. It was error for the Court of Appeals to give disqualifying weight to a single factor, the absence of cross-claims. Davenport states, Surely, cross-claims or their absence, while not dispositive of the issue of the existence of antagonistic interests, is a fact to be weighed in the balance along with all the others. The absence of a cross-claim is not the only factor. The Court of Appeals observed that the interests of the codefendants were not so disparate and distinct as to render them antagonistic for the purposes of CR 47.03. We must disagree because the clear language of the rule does not require the defendants to demonstrate a certain degree of antagonism, but only the existence of antagonism between the various healthcare providers at the time of jury selection, in order to permit separate peremptory challenges. Before trial, counsel for Linton submitted an apportionment instruction. Inherent in the Kentucky law of apportionment, KRS 411.182, is that the interests of codefendants may be considered antagonistic. Each of the defendants used a strategy in the practice of this case prior to trial to minimize the amount of fault and damages that the jury could ultimately assign to them as codefendants. The discovery testimony of expert witnesses for each of the parties was clearly designed to reduce or limit their exposure. The principles of apportionment do not require an all or nothing defense by the codefendants in order to establish antagonism. The apportionment system results in each coparty defendant 1) trying to convince a jury that they are not at all responsible for the injuries, and 2) in the event that the jury does find them responsible for a portion of the claims, trying to minimize that portion by casting blame on the other codefendants. The system is inherently antagonistic because it requires codefendants to attempt to shift responsibility to each other. The Court of Appeals failed to consider the role of apportionment and the clear antagonism which is created by that method of assessing liability. It failed to apply CR 47.03 and its reliance on Davenport was misplaced. That case was decided prior to the adoption of the apportionment statute, KRS 411.182. We must recognize that interests that are antagonistic at the time of jury selection or when the trial judge makes a determination regarding entitlement to separate peremptory challenges, do not necessarily have to remain antagonistic throughout the trial in order to support the allocation of separate challenges. There can be no certainty as to what the evidence will demonstrate or precisely what the claims or defenses will be during trial. See Sand Hill Energy, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., Ky., 83 S.W.3d 483 (2002) (A plurality opinion on the issue of peremptory challenges). Here, the trial judge ordered separate peremptory challenges based on the record prior to the beginning of the trial. In fact, the trial judge physically separated the defendants and ordered that they have no contact with one another in the exercise of peremptory challenges consistent with this Court's decision in Sand Hill Energy, supra . There was no abuse of discretion by the trial judge in the allocation of the challenges. We recognize that Sand Hill Energy involves a situation where a third party complaint was filed, but we find its reasoning to be applicable here where parties seek to limit liability under an apportionment instruction. We find reliance by the Court of Appeals on the decisions of Kentucky Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Cook, Ky., 590 S.W.2d 875 (1979) and Bowling Green Municipal Utilities to be misplaced because in both cases the reversal was based on the fact that the interests of the parties granted the additional strikes were identical. That is not the situation here.