Court Opinion

ID: 9535687
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:51:55.447413+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:18.404156
License: Public Domain

APODACA, Judge (concurring in part, dissenting in part.) {43} I respectfully dissent from the majority’s determination under subsection 11(A)(1) of the opinion that Diversey failed to preserve the claimed error in Jury Instruction No. 5. I also dissent from the majority’s holding under subsection 11(A)(2) that the same instruction was a correct or even adequate statement of the law. I concur only in the remaining portion of the majority’s opinion. I. PRESERVATION {44} Contrary to the opinion’s holding, I believe that the transcript and record clearly demonstrate that Diversey adequately and properly objected to the amended instruction and preserved the issue for our review on appeal. {45} When Diversey first objected to the instruction, the trial court, after considering arguments of opposing counsel, inserted the word “knowingly” to satisfy Diversey’s objection. After that amendment, Diversey later objected to the instruction a second time and for a different reason. This occurred as follows: [Diversey’s trial counsel]: Yes, Your Honor.... We believe that in the context which it is written, that’s an incorrect statement of the law under the Unfair Practices Act. It is not a breach of contract. An unfair trade practice is not a breach of contract. The Unfair Practices Act requires it be falsely promised and knowingly failure to deliver. This just — if you fail to deliver goods, you’ve got [trebled] damages. [Trial Court]: I’ve already taken care of that by saying this has to be done by known misrepresentations. In other words, you’re misrepresenting what the person’s going to be able to get. So this will be given as modified. After that exchange took place, the trial court and trial counsel moved on to other instructions. {46} Diversey’s second objection indicates to me that it contested the amended instruction, making clear to the trial court that its insertion of the word “knowingly” had not corrected the problem Diversey still saw as existing in the instruction. The objection referred to the instruction “in the context which it is written.” This language indicates that Diversey considered the trial court’s previous insertion of the word “knowingly” in objecting a second time. {47} Additionally, the rationales of Diversejfs first and second objections differ. The first objection concerned omission of the word “knowingly.” The second objection, on the other hand, concerned the distinction between an unfair practice and a breach of contract. The difference in rationales illustrates that Diversey objected to the instruction even with the insertion of the word “knowingly.” {48} Considering the substance of these objections, which should have alerted the trial court that the amendment did not cure the instruction, it is difficult to understand why the trial court insisted that her inclusion of the word “knowingly” cured the problem. In light of these objections and the context in which they were made, I also do not comprehend what else Diversey could have done to have alerted the trial court that there was still a problem with the instruction, even as first modified. {49} I respectfully disagree with the majority’s essential holding that more should be expected of a litigant. Consequently, I would hold that Diversey preserved this claimed error by properly raising the issue below and invoking a ruling by the trial court. See Shelley, 73 N.M. at 152, 386 P.2d at 245; Rule 12-216(A). II. JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 5 {50} I also disagree with the majority’s opinion that Jury Instruction No. 5 was an adequate statement of the law. The instruction read as follows: To establish the claim of unfair trade practices, Curtis Hughes and Chem-Source have the burden of proving the following contention: that Diversey knowingly made misrepresentations of any kind in at least one of the following ways: 5. Diversey failed to deliver the quantity of goods and services contracted for. {51} I would interpret the instruction to mean that a failure to deliver contracted goods or services constituted a knowing misi’epresentation. I believe the structure and language of the instruction supports this interpretation. It is a reasonable interpretation and one the jury probably made or could have easily made. The instruction was contrary to Stevenson, 112 N.M. at 99-100, 811 P.2d at 1310-11, in spite of the presence of the word “knowingly,” because of the sentence structure used. Enumerating the failure to deliver after the wording “one of the following ways,” under my reading of the instruction, indicated that failure to deliver was a way of knowingly making a misrepresentation. That is a misstatement of the law. The instruction did not clearly relate that a knowing misrepresentation must be made in the failure to deliver the quantity of goods and services contracted for, as the opinion states. {52} 1 concede that the reading of the instruction made by the majority is another way of interpreting the instruction. But even assuming that the majority’s interpretation is reasonable, I submit that we then have a situation in which the jury could have reasonably read the instruction in either one of two possible ways. If that is the case, then I would conclude that it was error to give an instruction that could so mislead the jury. If an instruction is worded in such a way that the jury can reasonably interpret it in a manner that is contrary to the law, isn’t that a good reason to reject the instruction? Such an instruction, in my view, is flawed. {53} The majority relies on authority holding that each instruction must be considered in context of other instructions and the evidence adduced at trial. I do not take issue with that premise. Yet, I fail to see how the other instructions and the evidence presented in this case could have prevented the jury from being misled by the flawed instruction.