Court Opinion

ID: 9547616
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:49:43.101388+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:53.894530
License: Public Domain

*549HOWE, Justice
(concurring):
I concur except that in Part IV of the opinion of the Court, I cannot subscribe to the conclusion that Provo’s objection to Instruction No. 23 failed to meet the requirements of Rule 51, Utah R.Civ.P. In my opinion, the objection adequately alerted the trial court to Provo’s claim that Instruction No. 23 did not follow U.C.A., 1953, § 58A-3-20(2) which adopts by reference the provisions of the National Electric Safety Code.
In the pre-trial order prepared by plaintiff’s counsel, one of plaintiff’s contentions was that provisions of the NESC and § 58A-3-20 had been violated rendering Provo negligent. One of Provo’s defenses enumerated in that pre-trial order was that it had complied with all applicable standards of the NESC and with the provisions of § 58A-3-20. Compliance and noncompliance with NESC were again the subjects of requested jury instructions submitted by both plaintiff and Provo. Consequently, it appears to me that the trial court was readily aware of what Provo was referring to in its objection to Instruction No. 23. Provo made its objection during the stress and pressure of the trial and should not be held to the standard of a textbook model. The objection went to the whole of the instruction and not just to the third paragraph.
However, I do not believe that it was prejudicial error to fail to instruct the jury that -compliance with the NESC was prima facie evidence that an installation was reasonably safe. Since compliance does not create a substantive presumption, as the majority opinion correctly points out, the failure of the instruction to mention “prima facie” was harmless. The instruction informed the jury that compliance was “evidence which would support a finding” that the installations were reasonably safe. It would have added nothing to have instructed the jury that compliance was “prima facie evidence.” Either way, the plaintiff was entitled to present evidence of noncompliance to be weighed by the jury.