Opinion ID: 1391927
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unnecessary to Detail Which Implement Caused Which Damages.

Text: The plaintiffs' claim for damages was based upon the contention that the failure of the Ford implements to comply with warranties adversely affected the crops which were produced or harvested by use of those implements in the year of the sale. All of the allegedly defective farm implements were manufactured by Ford. The jury was not instructed to specify which piece of equipment accounted for any particular item or amount of the lump sum damages awarded. Although the trial judge concluded that there was no evidence to support a finding that the plow was defective, he refused to direct a verdict or explicitly instruct the jury to that effect. Ford contends that, since the jury's verdict does not reveal which specific items of the plaintiffs' damages were caused by each defective implement, it is possible that the jury improperly attributed some of the damages to the plow which was not found defective. A review of the jury instructions, however, reveals that the plow was not included as a possible subject of breach of warranty by Ford or a possible cause of damages recoverable from Ford. Rather, the jury was instructed to consider only the tractor, disc, and baler in determining Ford's breach of warranty, and damages. [2] Therefore, the jury could not have founded its verdict upon any defect in the plow. To do so it would have had to disregard the jury instructions, and there is nothing in the record to justify an inference that it did so. While it is correct that all of the implements were not used to produce all of the crops, the court's instructions required the jury to predicate each component of damages on a breach of warranty as to the tractor, the disc, or the baler. The jury was directed that it was necessary that any damages awarded must have been proximately caused by a breach of warranty by Ford with respect to at least one of those farm implements. We presume that the jury understood and followed those instructions. See People v. Corbett, Colo., 611 P.2d 965 (1980); People v. Sepeda, 196 Colo. 13, 581 P.2d 723 (1978). No useful purpose would have been served by requiring the jury to apportion the damages to the particular piece of equipment or combination of pieces of equipment which caused them. There was adequate evidence that all the damages were caused by defects in the tractor, the disc, or the baler, all of which were Ford implements. Moreover, Ford did not request that the jury be required to apportion the damages. We conclude that the instructions were adequate to assure that the damages awarded by the jury were proximately caused by breaches of warranty by Ford.