Court Opinion

ID: 9816706
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 03:29:17.237715+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:06.400327
License: Public Domain

McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur. I. write separately only to encourage the district judges in this circuit to exercise their discretion to submit special verdicts in civil eases, especially those involving comparative fault issues. As noted in Skidmore v. Baltimore & O. R.R., 167 F.2d 54, 61 (2d Cir.1948) (Frank, J.), “the general verdict ... confers on the jury a vast power to commit error and do mischief by loading it with technical burdens far beyond its ability to perform, by confusing it in aggregating instead of segregating the issues, and by shrouding in secrecy and mystery the actual results of its deliberations.” Moreover, “when a jury returns an ordinary general verdiet, it usually has the power utterly to ignore what the judge instructs it concerning the substantive legal rules, a power which, because generally it cannot be controlled, is indistinguishable for all practical purposes, from a ‘right.’ ” Id. at 57-58 (footnotes omitted). Special verdicts would lessen the secrecy and mystery as well as the threat of jury nullification.