Opinion ID: 361103
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: prejudicial contact with the jury

Text: 80 Although unnecessary to our decision, an additional issue warrants mention. As indicated, trial on liability was separated from trial on damages; the same jury, however, was to hear both. The jury returned its verdict on liability on September 12, 1975. Black Clawson contends that immediately after the liability verdict, Standard Alliance's counsel improperly approached two jurors as they were approaching an elevator in the Federal Courthouse and thanked them for their verdict. 30 Black Clawson claimed improper contact and promptly filed a motion for mistrial, with accompanying affidavits as to what had transpired. Instead of summoning the attorneys and interrogating the jurors on the record or otherwise proceeding to openly test the validity of the motion, the district court, without notice to either party, sent his law clerk to interview the jurors about the alleged incident. The court concluded, on the basis of this ex parte communication, that any jury contact which had taken place had been trivial. 31 81 The court might very well have been correct, but the manner in which it made the determination was improper. The correct response of a trial judge, when confronted with allegations of improper jury contact, is to give notice to the parties and to question the jurors on the record about any alleged incident. 32 See Petrycki v. Youngstown & Northern Ry. Co., 531 F.2d 1363 (6th Cir.), Cert. denied, 429 U.S. 860, 97 S.Ct. 161, 50 L.Ed.2d 138 (1976); United States v. Gay, 522 F.2d 429 (6th Cir. 1975). See also United States v. Florea, 541 F.2d 568, 572-73 (6th Cir. 1976), Cert. denied, 430 U.S. 945, 97 S.Ct. 1579, 51 L.Ed.2d 792 (1977). 82 Ex parte contact between judge and jury raises a presumption of reversible error. Petrycki v. Youngstown & Northern Ry. Co., supra, at 1367; United States v. Gay, supra, at 435. In United States v. United States Gypsum Co., --- U.S. ----, ----, 98 S.Ct. 2864, 57 L.Ed.2d 854 (1978), the Supreme Court warned of the dangers of ex parte contact between a judge and any member of the jury. The court found reversible error when a meeting between the trial judge and a foreman, which had been consented to by the parties, was allowed to drift into what amounted to a supplemental instruction to the foreman relating to the jury's obligation to return a verdict . . . --- at ----, 98 S.Ct. at 2886. See also Rogers v. United States, 422 U.S. 35, 95 S.Ct. 2091, 45 L.Ed.2d 1 (1975); Fillippon v. Albion Vein States Co., 250 U.S. 76, 39 S.Ct. 435, 63 L.Ed. 853 (1919). Here, the length and nature of the law clerk's contact with the jury is unknown. No record was kept, not notice was given to the parties. Under these circumstances, the presumption of prejudicial error cannot be rebutted. This alone would have required reversal, at least of the damages verdict rendered by the same jury after the incident took place. 33