Opinion ID: 1956217
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: claim of improper closing argument

Text: In the first of these, the defendants urge that the district court mistakenly ruled that the defendants' closing argument improperly exploited the jury's bias in favor of local physicians and was so prejudicial that the plaintiffs' failure to object to the argument should be excused. We agree with the plaintiffs' position that appeals to local sentiment in closing arguments are highly improper and are not to be countenanced; cases are to be argued on their facts without playing to a jury's prejudice. Pederson v. Dumouchel, 72 Wash.2d 73, 431 P.2d 973 (1967). And it is true, as the plaintiffs note, that some jurisdictions suggest that in extreme situations in which the sinister effects of grossly improper remarks cannot be corrected by either retraction or rebuke by the trial court, the failure to object is excused. E.g., Standard Fire Ins. Co. v. Reese, 584 S.W.2d 835 (Tex. 1979); Pederson v. Dumouchel, supra ; Nelson v. Martinson, 52 Wash.2d 684, 328 P.2d 703 (1958); Colquett v. Williams, 264 Ala. 214, 86 So.2d 381 (1956); Hilliard v. A.H. Robins Co., 148 Cal.App.3d 374, 196 Cal.Rptr. 117 (1983); Terracina v. Castelli, 80 Ill.App.3d 475, 35 Ill.Dec. 890, 400 N.E.2d 27 (1979); Carlton v. Johns, 194 So.2d 670 (Fla.App.1967); Griffith v. Casteel, 313 S.W.2d 149 (Tex.Civ.App.1958). However, in this jurisdiction the controlling principle is that one may not waive an error, gamble on a favorable verdict, and, upon obtaining an unfavorable result, assert the previously waived error. Fisher Corp. v. Consolidated Freightways, 230 Neb. 832, 434 N.W.2d 17 (1989). Accordingly, we have consistently held that in order to preserve, as a ground of appeal, an opponent's misconduct during closing argument, the aggrieved party must have objected to the improper remarks no later than at the conclusion of the argument. Marple v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 244 Neb. 274, 505 N.W.2d 715 (1993); Sandomierski v. Fixemer, 163 Neb. 716, 81 N.W.2d 142 (1957), superseded on other grounds, Kennedy v. Kennedy, 221 Neb. 724, 380 N.W.2d 300 (1986). Plaintiffs' suggestion that we have heretofore carved out exceptions to the foregoing rule is unfounded. While it is true that in Patterson v. Swarr, May, Smith & Anderson, 238 Neb. 911, 473 N.W.2d 94 (1991), the trial court, in overruling a motion for mistrial because of an improper argument, stated that the issue could be raised postverdict, we held only that an antecedent objection to an improper argument is not required in order to move for a mistrial on that ground. The motion for mistrial in State v. Archbold, 217 Neb. 345, 350 N.W.2d 500 (1984), related not to an improper argument, but to the adduction of evidence; in that context, we ruled that as a mistrial motion could not be used as a substitute for a timely objection to the evidence, a mistrial could not be sought for the improper receipt of evidence to which no prior objection had been made. Hall v. Rice, 117 Neb. 813, 223 N.W. 4 (1929), holds only that when an objection has been sustained to an improper remark made during the course of the opening statement, the objection need not be repeated to a like comment made during the closing argument. In point of fact, we do not permit a party to gamble on a favorable result and later complain of a waived error even where the misconduct spews from the mouth of the trial judge. Pitt v. Checker Cab Co., 217 Neb. 600, 350 N.W.2d 507 (1984). It also is to be noted that an aggrieved party wishing a mistrial because of an opponent's misconduct during argument is now required to move for such before the cause is submitted; at the time of the trial at hand, however, such a motion could have been made at any time before the verdict was returned. See Harmon Cable Communications v. Scope Cable Television, 237 Neb. 871, 468 N.W.2d 350 (1991).