Opinion ID: 735329
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Allowing the Jury to Make a Pre-Verdict Statement.

Text: 17 Vichare raises several issues on appeal based on the statement that the jury delivered with its verdict. 1 The first of these is that the trial court, by permitting the statement in order to break a deadlock, improperly induced unanimity among the jury. 18 The parties dispute whether Vichare has preserved this issue for appeal. They also dispute what our standard of review should be if we find that Vichare waived this argument: Vichare claims that this Circuit applies the plain error standard of review to waived claims, see, e.g., Metromedia Co. v. Fugazy, 983 F.2d 350, 362 (2d Cir.1992); Air Et Chaleur, S.A. v. Janeway, 757 F.2d 489, 493-94 (2d Cir.1985), while AMBAC claims that we apply the fundamental error standard, see, e.g., Travelers Indem. Co. v. Scor Reinsurance Co., 62 F.3d 74, 79 (2d Cir.1995); Mondave v. Long Island Jewish Med. Ctr., 501 F.2d 1065, 1072 (2d Cir.1974). We need not, however, address either of these issues, because even assuming arguendo that Vichare preserved this issue there is no error, let alone plain or fundamental error. 19 Vichare points to no cases holding that allowing a jury in a civil case to make a statement is error as a matter of law, or that inducing a jury in a civil case to unanimity by allowing them to make a statement is error as a matter of law. 2 Indeed, there are other long-accepted ways in which trial courts may encourage unanimity. For example, we have long upheld the use of Allen charges. E.g., United States v. Melendez, 60 F.3d 41, 50-52 (2d Cir.1995); United States v. Robinson, 560 F.2d 507, 516-18 (2d Cir.1977) (in banc). Decisions whether and when to give an Allen charge are within the discretion of the trial court. See United States v. Martinez, 446 F.2d 118, 120 (2d Cir.1971) (reviewing for abuse of discretion a trial court's sua sponte delivery of an Allen charge to the jury after only three hours of deliberation). Similarly, we have held that when the trial court gives a supplemental charge to the jury regarding applicable law, it enjoys broad discretion in determining how, and under what circumstances the charge may be given. United States v. Civelli, 883 F.2d 191, 195 (2d Cir.1989). In the Allen charge cases, we have articulated the limit of this discretion by stating that the charge may not coerce undecided jurors into reaching a verdict by abandoning without reason conscientiously held doubts. United States v. Ruggiero, 928 F.2d 1289, 1299 (2d Cir.1991) (quoting Robinson, 560 F.2d at 517). These cases illustrate that this Court treats allegations of improperly induced unanimity among jurors by balancing the good of efficiency (in the form of avoiding a hung jury) against the evil of injustice (in the form of a verdict that is not the product of the jurors' consciences). 20 In this case Judge Stein avoided a hung jury and did so in a manner that did not cause the jurors to abandon their consciences: there was, therefore, no abuse of discretion. At the time Judge Stein allowed the statement, the circumstances of the case indicated that the jury was close to hanging and that allowing the requested statement would aid the jurors in resolving their differences. Moreover, the jury's statement that being allowed to make a statement may help us reach a decision, does not necessarily suggest that some jurors were convinced that the law required a verdict for Vichare, but were willing to trade that result for the opportunity to make a statement: it just as easily suggests that some jurors were convinced that the law required a verdict against Vichare, but were frustrated with that result and wanted an outlet for their frustration. On this interpretation, the opportunity to make the statement removed a danger of jurors compromising their consciences (i.e. by allowing their personal desires to override the law). Confronted with a jury that appeared ready to hang, and ambivalent evidence that the opportunity to make a statement would cause any of the jurors to compromise their consciences, the trial court exercised due discretion when it allowed a statement to be made. 21 There is of course the possibility that the content of the statement itself could reveal that the jurors had impermissibly compromised their consciences. It is for this reason that we consider the practice of allowing such statements to be a precarious one to be used sparingly: there is always the danger that the opportunity to make a statement will infect the jury's deliberations and spoil a jury that would otherwise have yielded a proper verdict. Whether this danger was realized in a particular case must be judged from the content of the statement--an analysis we undertake in sections B and C, below. Allowing the jury in this civil case to make its statement, though, standing alone, was not an abuse of discretion. 22