Opinion ID: 475761
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: jury verdict and instructions

Text: 8 On appeal, The Budd Company contends that the district court erred in failing to find contributory negligence as a matter of law. Alternatively, Budd contends that the district court's jury instructions warrant a new trial.
9 Defendant Budd's central contention on appeal is that the jury's finding of no contributory negligence by plaintiff Robert J. Bowers is not supported by the evidence. Budd contends that contributory negligence was established as a matter of law or, alternatively, that the jury's finding of no contributory negligence is against the great weight of the evidence, necessitating a new trial. As the standard for granting a new trial is less onerous than that for establishing a proposition as a matter of law, see Shows v. Jamison Bedding, Inc., 671 F.2d 927, 930 (5th Cir.1982), we proceed to examine whether the jury's finding is against the great weight of the evidence. 10 At the outset, we note the great deference that this Court exercises in reviewing a denial of a motion for new trial based on the jury's verdict. In Shows, this Court noted, The decision to grant or deny a motion for a new trial is generally within the sound discretion of the trial court, and reversible only for an abuse of that discretion. Id. at 930. Further, the Court has emphasized that review is more deferential when the trial court upholds the jury's verdict: 11 When the trial judge has refused to disturb a jury verdict, all the factors that govern our review of his decision favor affirmance. Deference to the trial judge, who has had an opportunity to observe the witnesses and to consider the evidence in the context of a living trial rather than upon a cold record, operates in harmony with deference to the jury's determination of the weight of the evidence and the constitutional allocation to the jury of questions of fact. 12 Id. Moreover, in order to grant a motion for new trial, the trial judge must be convinced that the verdict is against the great weight of the evidence. Id. (emphasis original). In short, [t]he 'great weight of the evidence' standard is not easily met. Id. at 931. 13 With this deferential standard of review in mind, the Court turns to the record in the instant case. Texas incorporates the common law standard of contributory negligence, i.e., the failure to use ordinary care to do that which a person of ordinary prudence would have done under the same or similar circumstances. Parker v. Highland Park, Inc., 565 S.W.2d 512, 520 (Tex.1978). [W]here a person has knowledge, actual or imputed, of a defect, a question of fact as to negligence is presented unless it can be said, as a matter of law, that a person of ordinary care would not have incurred the risk. Id. (citing McAfee v. Travis Gas Corp., 137 Tex. 314, 153 S.W.2d 442, 447 (1941)). Defendant Budd contends that plaintiff Robert J. Bowers had knowledge of the danger of standing near the wheel during the assembly and reinflation process. Defendant Budd concludes that Bowers' conduct in standing near the wheel with such knowledge establishes that the jury's finding of no contributory negligence is against the great weight of the evidence. 14 Exercising the appropriate review of the trial court's denial of a motion for new trial, Budd's characterization of the record cannot be accepted. Rather, the record contains conflicting evidence on the degree of Bowers' knowledge of the danger and the reasonableness of his conduct. While on the one hand Bowers stated that he had heard of tire explosion accidents occurring while the tires were under repair, he also stated that he was unaware of, and had no specific prior information about, the propensity of multi-section wheels to separate explosively with dangerous consequences for bystanders. Bowers also admitted that he had been warned in the past of the dangers of exploding wheels, but he also stated that although he knew tires could explode during repair, he was not aware of any great degree of danger therefrom. 2 15 David Canada testified that he warned Bowers to stand back because the wheel might blow apart while he was inflating it. This was contradicted by Canada's own deposition testimony, as brought out at trial, in which Canada stated that he and Bowers had talked only about the proper amount of tire pressure and that he had not requested Bowers to stand back because of the dangerousness of the procedure. Moreover, Canada admitted under cross-examination at trial that because of the noise and general commotion in the area, he could not know whether Bowers actually heard the alleged warning. There is also record evidence to indicate that Bowers (and others) had been working fourteen to fifteen hours a day during this crisis. The jury may well have properly balanced this consideration in making its determination that under all the circumstances (including any possible warnings that may have been heard or not heard, the harried employees, and the emergency or crisis atmosphere of the repair yard), plaintiff's behavior was not unreasonable. 16 In short, it cannot be said that the trial court abused its discretion in denying Budd's motion for new trial. Further, and for similar reasons, defendant Budd fails to persuade that it established Bowers' contributory negligence as a matter of law.
17 Defendant Budd contends that the district court abused its discretion in the form of the special issues submitted to the jury regarding Bowers' alleged contributory negligence. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 49. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 49(a) gives a trial judge the discretionary authority to use special verdicts in submitting a case to the jury. The trial court also has discretion over the nature, form, and scope of the issues submitted to the jury. This discretion is reviewable only for abuse. Bryan v. Cargill, Inc., 723 F.2d 1202, 1204 (5th Cir.1984) (citing Loffland Brothers Co. v. Roberts, 386 F.2d 540, 546 (5th Cir.1967), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 1040, 88 S.Ct. 778, 19 L.Ed.2d 830 (1968)). This Court has summarized the standards applied in exercising its appellate review of the district court's formulation of the special issues: 18 [W]e have emphasized several factors in determining the adequacy of forms of special interrogatories: (i) whether, when read as a whole and in conjunction with the general charge the interrogatories adequately presented the contested issues to the jury, (ii) whether the submission of the issues to the jury was fair, and (iii) whether the ultimate questions of fact were clearly submitted to the jury. 19 Dreiling v. General Electric Co., 511 F.2d 768, 774 (5th Cir.1975) (citations omitted). 20 This Court has also stated that, while the judge must submit all material issues raised by the pleadings and evidence, the standard for review is not academic perfection. Miley v. Oppenheimer & Co., 637 F.2d 318, 332 (5th Cir.1981). The Court has explained: 21 There is no doubt that a judge must clearly and properly instruct the jury with regard to the resolution of key issues in a given case. However, there is no basis for [appellant's] apparent assumption that because an issue is important to the outcome of a case, the jury must be instructed to supply a specific answer informing the court how they resolved that one issue. No party is entitled to a special verdict on each of the multi-faceted, multitudinous issues essential to the resolution of a given case. 22 Miley, 637 F.2d at 334. See also Bryan, 723 F.2d at 1204. 23 In the instant case, Special Issue No. 17 asked the jury: Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that on the occasion in question Robert J. Bowers failed to keep a proper lookout for his own safety? The jury answered yes, and then was instructed to proceed to the next question, Special Issue No. 18: Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such conduct was negligence? The jury answered no. The district court denied Defendant Question 19, which asked the jury whether plaintiff Robert J. Bowers failed to heed the warnings given to him. 24 Viewed within the perimeters of appellate review outlined above, it cannot be said that the district court's denial of the requested question was an abuse of discretion. When read in conjunction with the trial judge's instructions, the special interrogatories as given fairly submitted to the jury the contested issues and defendant Budd's defense of contributory negligence. We see no reversible error in the trial court's action.