Court Opinion

ID: 9581587
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:16:30.217429+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:06.147051
License: Public Domain

Deen, Judge,
concurring in the judgment. I do not agree with the suggestion in the dissenting opinion that mistrial is available only when the plaintiffs attorney is at fault, or with the suggested reason that this is so because, if the plaintiff desires a new trial, he can dismiss and refile of his own accord. I think this would *458penalize a plaintiff and therefore be an invalid reason, but in examining the Code section and antecedent cases on which it is grounded, I find no such indication of intent. The emphasis lies elsewhere: on the extent of the trial court’s duty and power to stop a trial and on his alternate duty on his motion to stop improper conduct on the part of counsel. In Berry v. State, 10 Ga. 511 (6) it was held: "For counsel to attempt surreptitiously to get before the jury, facts by way of supposition, which have not been proven, is highly reprehensible; and the practice should be instantly repressed by the Court without waiting to be called upon by the opposite party.” Judge Lumpkin humorously observed that the reason for the court to interpose without waiting for an objection lies in opposing counsel’s reluctance to expose himself to some scathing comment to the effect that the only the galled jade winces. Again in Williford v. State, 23 Ga. 1, he addressed himself to the problem of mistrials, pointing out that originally oppressive and odious means were used to keep juries together until a verdict could be wrung from them; that later a more enlightened rule was followed to the effect that a mistrial might be awárded whenever "from Providential cause or otherwise it became necessary,” but that in the present day the question is to be left pretty much to the judge’s discretion "under his responsibility to the country for any abuse of his authority.” These seem to be the first statements in this state on the supervisory functions of the judge in a jury trial. In Augusta & Summerville R. Co. v. Randall & Wife, 85 Ga. 297, 321 (11 SE 706), where counsel insisted on arguing matters not in evidence, it was held: "It is the duty of the circuit courts, in jury trials, to interfere in all proper cases, of their own motion ... and if counsel persevere in . . . appealing to prejudices foreign to the case in evidence, exception may be taken by the other side, which may be good ground for a new trial or for a reversal in this court”; this, although it is not recited that any motion for mistrial was made at the time.
From this and other cited pre-code cases, I gain a firm impression that the thrust of Code § 81-1009 is not to distinguish between counsel for plaintiff and defendant, but to place an affirmative duty on the trial judge to see that fair trial procedures are observed without waiting for an objection from opposing counsel. If this is so, it clears up the meaning of the last clause considerably ("or, in his discretion, he may order a mistrial if the plaintiffs attorney is the offender.”) The meaning is that in such event the judge may declare a mistrial in his discretion whether or not the *459defendant’s attorney has requested it. This protects a defendant from an adverse verdict by a prejudiced jury. It would not, however, be reasonable for a judge on his own motion to declare a mistrial where the plaintiff had been hurt, for the plaintiff should still have the decision of whether to request the mistrial or go on and take his chances hoping for a verdict. I therefore think a proper construction of Code § 81-1009 is this: (a) the court has a fair trial duty to interpose and prevent counsel from making prejudicial and impermissible remarks without waiting for an objection; if the other party does object, he should, by rebuke to offending counsel, place it beyond that counsel’s power to further injure objecting counsel by sarcastic comment, and (b) in his discretion (that is, without waiting to be called on to do so) if he feels the matter grave enough, and it is the plaintiff’s counsel who is the offender, summarily stop the trial. It would be a backward and involuted reading of the code section which would engraft on it a prohibition against the court ever granting a mistrial on motion of counsel for the plaintiff, although as a matter of actual practice counsel for the plaintiff will not make such a motion unless he feels the situation desperate indeed.
In this case defendant’s attorney in his opening statement said the plaintiff precipitated his injury intentionally in the course of a pattern of conduct — a pattern involving "many, many claims.” There are ways to get such evidence before a jury in certain cases; nothing in this case at that time indicated it would be admissible here. If not admissible, it probably was grossly prejudicial, as indicated by the fact that plaintiffs counsel stated he did not want a mistrial but felt that he must have one although he had four doctors under subpoena. This being so, I concur in the judgment of reversal.