Opinion ID: 531368
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mitigation Instruction

Text: 23 Winston assigns error in the trial court's refusal to give its jury instruction number eight. This jury instruction would have directed the jury to reduce the plaintiff's damages if the jury found that the plaintiff could have mitigated his damages by seeking out or taking advantage of a business opportunity or employment. Jardien responds that the parties' stipulation regarding damages obviated the need for a mitigation instruction. 24 For Winston to assign error for failure to give this instruction, it must have objected thereto before the jury retired to consider its verdict, stating distinctly the matter objected to and the grounds of the objection. Fed.R.Civ.P. 51. However, Winston never objected to the trial court's refusal to give this instruction. The entire relevant colloquy at the instruction conference consisted of the following: 25 THE COURT: Then there was Defendant's No. 8, Fifth Circuit information, Instruction on Mitigation. Do you want to state your objection? 26 MR. LEVIN [plaintiff's counsel]: Yes, Judge. There is no issue in the case that we have stipulated to what his lost wages are subject to our agreement that if Mr. Dienner finds something out after the fact that it can be-- 27 THE COURT: This was talking about taking any reasonable opportunity to reduce or minimize the loss of [sic ] damage and this was the one about the employment opportunities. 28 Do you remember which one you're talking about? 29 MR. DIENNER [defendant's counsel]: Yes, I remember that, Judge. That's the one where because one month after he was let go, one month, Steve Hawkins offered to pay him a thousand dollar a location and he declined that offer. 30 THE COURT: Do you remember that now? 31 MR. LEVIN: Yes, and what he did was assume other employment and what your Honor observed at that time was that the law does not--or probably does not--require a man to go back to work at the place that discriminated against him as long as he has obtained other employment. 32 THE COURT: Well, it was more than that. It wasn't the same job, it wasn't the same salary, it wasn't the same circumstances and he doesn't have to mitigate the offense against him by going back to the people who offended him. 33 MR. DIENNER: On the thousand dollars a location, he would do that out of his own home, not reporting to anybody. 34 THE COURT: I know all that. It's not the same job, it's a different job, it's less money on the facts, but more than that, he doesn't have to go back to the people who have fired him for discrimination and believe they won't discriminate against him again. If he has a cause of action, he has a cause of action and to go back to them is in the nature of settlement rather than mitigation. 35 [Let's go on to] Defendant's No. 10. 36 MR. DIENNER: You're refusing No. 8, sir? 37 THE COURT: Yes. 38 The litigants and the trial court then moved on to consider other proposed jury instructions; no further mention of the mitigation instruction was made. The defense counsel's inquiry as to the court's decision on instruction number eight can hardly constitute an objection. We will not parse the record to find an implied objection when the litigant could have simply articulated an objection at the jury instruction conference. 39 Rule 51 clearly provides that the party objecting to the refusal of a proposed instruction must object and state the reasons. This court will not ignore the clear mandate of Rule 51. See Deppe v. Tripp, 863 F.2d 1356, 1361-62 (7th Cir.1988) (refusing to apply the plain error doctrine to the review of jury instructions). To preserve jury instruction issues for appellate review, litigants must ensure that the record contains sufficient information for this court to ascertain the basis for the objection at the jury instruction conference. Because the defendant failed to make any objection, let alone state its reasons thereto, we hold that it waived its right to contest the refusal of the mitigation instruction on appeal. 40