Opinion ID: 2330330
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Instruction Concerning Exculpatory Clause

Text: [¶ 48] Appellant argues the district court should have given an instruction that exculpatory clauses such as those used in the Rider's Application and Liability Agreement must be strictly construed. We are once again hampered in our understanding of the totality of the instructions because they are not of record on this appeal, and because it is clear that the district court modified some of the parties' proposed instructions before they were given. [¶ 49] However, it is clear from the record that the district court held that the exculpatory clause applied only to inherent risks of the trail ride, making its scope coterminous with the coverage of the Recreation Safety Act, and that it instructed the jury to that effect. That ruling has not been appealed. Knight v. TCB Constr. & Design, LLC, 2011 WY 27, ¶ 15, 248 P.3d 178, 183 (Wyo. 2011); Triton Coal Co. v. Husman, Inc., 846 P.2d 664, 667 (Wyo.1993). [¶ 50] A claimed error which could not affect the outcome of a case cannot be the basis for a successful appeal. DeJulio v. Foster, 715 P.2d 182, 187 (Wyo.1986); Nalder v. W. Park Hosp., 254 F.3d 1168, 1176 (10th Cir.2001). The jury was adequately instructed that the Rider's Application and Liability Agreement did not pertain to anything other than an inherent risk of horseback trail riding. That term was defined consistently with the Recreation Safety Act in other instructions to which there was no objection. The district court had already construed the exculpatory language narrowly and limited the jury's use of it by the instructions it gave. The proffered instruction would have been superfluous and failure to give it could not have been prejudicial or have affected the outcome.