Opinion ID: 624286
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Jury Instructions 15 and 16

Text: UPS argues it is entitled to a new trial because the district court gave two jury instructions that misstated Kansas law. We review the district court's decision to give a particular jury instruction for abuse of discretion and consider the instructions as a whole de novo to determine whether they accurately informed the jury of the governing law. Garcia v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 209 F.3d 1170, 1173 (10th Cir.2000) (internal quotation marks omitted). Faulty jury instructions require reversal when (1) we have substantial doubt whether the instructions, considered as a whole, properly guided the jury in its deliberations; and (2) when a deficient jury instruction is prejudicial. McInnis v. Fairfield Cmtys., Inc., 458 F.3d 1129, 1141 (10th Cir.2006) (internal quotation marks and alteration omitted). UPS argues that Instructions 15 and 16 were improper. They read as follows: Instruction 15: Provided you find plaintiff is entitled to recover under Instruction 12, you are further instructed that Kansas law does not prohibit the termination of an employee who is unable to perform his work at the time of his discharge, even if the inability to work was due to a work-related injury. App. Vol. 1, at 138 (underline in original). Instruction 16: Provided you find plaintiff is entitled to recover under Instruction 12, you are further instructed that the Kansas Workers' Compensation Act does not impose a legal duty on the employer to consider or find alternative employment for an injured employee who is unable to return to his former position at the time of his discharge. Id. at 139 (underline in original). Instruction 12, which is referenced in instructions 15 and 16, reads as follows: To prevail on his claim of retaliatory discharge, the plaintiff, Keith Jones, has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that there is a causal connection between his worker's compensation claim and the termination of his employment by the defendant, UPS. If plaintiff meets his burden, UPS must offer evidence of a non-retaliatory reason for plaintiff's discharge other than the fact that plaintiff had filed a worker's compensation claim. If you find UPS has failed to offer evidence of a legitimate non-retaliatory reason for plaintiff's discharge, then you must find for the plaintiff. If you find UPS has presented evidence of a non-retaliatory reason for plaintiff's discharge, plaintiff must prove the reasons stated by defendant are merely a pretext for UPS'[s] actual intent to retaliate. Id. at 135. UPS alleges that Instructions 15 and 16 misstate Kansas law because the phrase provided you find instructed the jurors to first decide if plaintiff prevailed under Instruction 12, and only then consider whether UPS avoided liability based on Instructions 15 and 16. Thus, according to UPS, Instructions 15 and 16 turned the reasons for UPS's termination into affirmative defenses and therefore improperly shifted the burden to UPS to undo the jury's determination of liability under Instruction 12. Aplt. Br. at 30. We conclude that Instructions 15 and 16 did not inform the jury regarding the law as well as they could have. We find it somewhat unusual that the district court instructed the jury to consider potential defenses to Jones' claim for retaliatory discharge only after it found that Jones was entitled to recover under this cause of action. It would have been more helpful for the district court to inform the jury that Instructions 15 and 16 identify acceptable defenses to Jones' claim and that they should be considered in conjunction with Instruction 12, which outlined Kansas law regarding retaliatory discharge. Despite our concern regarding Instructions 15 and 16, however, we conclude that the district court's failure to adequately instruct the jury in this regard was not prejudicial to UPS. As noted previously, Kansas has adopted the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting analysis for employment discrimination cases. Rebarchek, 35 P.3d at 898. Accordingly, Instruction 12 properly informed the jury that Jones was required to put forth a prima facie case of retaliation, at which point UPS was required to present the jury with a legitimate, non-pretextual reason for terminating his employment. Bracken, 38 P.3d at 682. Although it would have been better if the district court had not instructed the jury to consider UPS's defenses only after determining whether Jones could recover for retaliatory discharge, we conclude that Instructions 12, 15, and 16, taken together, accurately summarized the law in such a way that the jury could render a proper verdict in light of all the evidence. For this reason, we deny UPS's request for a new trial based on improper jury instructions.