Opinion ID: 2551157
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Petitioner was Harmed by the Omission of a Cautionary Instruction

Text: Respondent contended at oral argument that Petitioner's question before this Court is moot because the jury answered No to Question 1 on the verdict sheet, asserting, as we understand it, that because the jury found that Amtrak was not negligent it necessarily did not perform any analysis of proposed, or implied affirmative defenses. [21] Respondent's argument fails to recognize that the structure of Question 1 on the verdict sheet compounded the trial court's error in not instructing the jury on the inapplicability of the assumption of the risk defense. In answering No to the first question, the jury may have concluded that the employee had assumed the risks of his employment, thereby negating Amtrak's duty entirely, or the jury could have found that Amtrak was negligent but did not cause Mr. Collins's fatal injury because, as Amtrak characterized it, he was solely responsible for his injury. A prima facie case of negligence under FELA is based on the common law elements in accordance with federal law: duty, breach, foreseeability, and causation. [22] , [23] Szekeres v. CSX Transp., Inc., 617 F.3d 424 (6th Cir.2010) (citing Adams v. CSX Transp., Inc., 899 F.2d 536, 539 (6th Cir.1990) (holding that a FELA plaintiff asserting a cause of negligence against his or her employer must prove the traditional common law elements of negligence: duty, breach, foreseeability, and causation)). Ordinarily the general concept of negligence and the instruction on causation, distinct elements in a negligence claim, are explained and represented in separate questions on the verdict sheet. Vol. ♦Ch. 9, Modern Federal Jury Instructions Civil, ¶ 6.2-6.4 (Matthew Bender 2010) (illustrating a model verdict sheet in which the elements of negligence and causation are addressed separately and in that order); see also 9-49 BENDER'S FEDERAL PRACTICE FORMS Form No. 49:34 (2010) (providing a sample verdict sheet in which the question of negligence preceded the question of causation); see MARYLAND CIVIL PATTERN JURY INSTRUCTIONS §§ 19-1, 19-10 (Maryland Bar Association, 4th ed.2009 Supp.) (defining the general concept of negligence and causation elements respectively). The issue raised in the petition for certiorari is not moot. In the present case, negligence and causation were combined into the first question on the verdict sheet. Here, the evidence presented focused on knowledge of danger and voluntary encounter of risks. In addition, the lack of a cautionary instruction, compounded by a verdict sheet that did not separate negligence from causation, suggests that the jury may have impermissibly concluded that Mr. Collins assumed the risk of his injuries thereby negating Amtrak's duty. We look to the jury instructions that were given at trial to determine whether they are relevant in light of the issues raised and the evidence presented. [24] Jurors are presumed to have followed the instructions provided to them by the court, [o]ur legal system necessarily proceeds upon that presumption. State v. Moulden, 292 Md. 666, 678, 441 A.2d 699, 705 (1982) (citing Blanchfield v. Dennis, 292 Md. 319, 438 A.2d 1330 (1982)). This presumption directs our attention to the substance of the instruction, which is critically important in determining if the jury may have relied upon the defense that Mr. Collins assumed the risk of his injury. After discussing the elements to be considered in determining if Amtrak was negligent, the trial judge instructed the jury to presume that Mr. Collins had acted with due care, i.e. that he had acted reasonably, because he was deceased and could not present testimony on his own behalf. The jury was then instructed about the law with regard to contributory negligence: In determining whether the Plaintiff discharged the duty of ordinary care imposed upon him, it is proper for you to take into consideration his familiarity with the place in which he customarily worked and his familiarity with the nature of the work which was customarily performed in that place.    In this case, the Defendant contends that Mr. Collins'[s] injuries and death were due to Plaintiffs own negligence. This is referred to as contributory negligence. If you find that Mr. Collins was negligent and that Amtrak was not, then the Plaintiff is prevented from recovering damages under the Federal Employer's (sic) Liability Act. If you find that the negligence on the part of Mr. Collins and on the part of the Defendant each played a role in causing Mr. Collins'[s] injuries and death, then Mr. Collins'[s] negligence is referred to as contributory negligence and he is not prevented from recovering damages. Rather, Mr. Collins'[s] damages are reduced in proportion to the amount of contributory negligence attributable to him and I will explain that in some more detail very shortly.    If you find there was both a safe way and a dangerous way by which the Plaintiff could have performed his work and he knew or in the exercise of ordinary care should have known of the safe way of doing such work and voluntarily chose the dangerous way and was injured thereby, and if you find that such choice constituted negligence on the Plaintiff's part and that such negligence was the sole cause of the alleged injury, if any, then the Plaintiff cannot recover and it would be your duty to return a verdict for the Defendant. [25] (Emphasis added.) While the instruction given adequately covered the law applicable to negligence and contributory negligence, it failed as a matter of law because, in substance, it did not address all of the evidence and the reasonable inferences to be drawn from the evidence. Assumption of the risk is a distinctive kind of contributory negligence, and so a jury should be instructed in a way that removes this theory from consideration. See generally PROSSER AND KEETON ON TORTS, § 68, 495. Because the instruction, particularly the language emphasized above, invokes a voluntary choice, the jury should have also been instructed to consider evidence of Decedent's carelessness independently of Decedent's knowing encounter with a danger in the course of his employment. As instructed, the elements of assumption of the risk were entangled with the elements of negligence and contributory negligence. In working out the distinction, the courts have arrived at the conclusion that assumption of risk is a matter of knowledge of the danger and intelligent acquiescence in it, while contributory negligence is a matter of some fault or departure from the standard of reasonable conduct, however unwilling or protesting the plaintiff may be. Koshorek, 318 F.2d at 367; see Johnson v. Erie R.R. Co., 236 F.2d 352, 355 (2d Cir.1956) (holding that only instructing on contributory negligence allowed for the jury to consider assumption of the risk in rendering its verdict). As a result of the instructions given, it is uncertain whether the jury found Amtrak to be not negligent or whether the jury's response to Question 1 meant that the jury found Amtrak to be negligent, but its negligence played no role in causing Collins's injuries. This uncertainty is pivotal because the Circuit Court's failure to instruct on the inapplicability of assumption of the risk allowed the jurors, on the issue of causation, to consider that Collins knew of the risk of working under energized wires, and, therefore, assumed the consequences of his voluntary choice to encounter that risk. The jury, in merely considering the element of causation, may have been misled by the evidence tending to show that Decedent assumed the risk of his own injuries.