Court Opinion

ID: 9723527
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:18:32.052306+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:49.340620
License: Public Domain

Liacos, J.
(dissenting). I do not agree that the defendant is entitled to a new trial on liability. My reasons are twofold. First, the defendant failed to preserve its rights adequately because it did not make timely objection to the judge’s charge. Second, the defendant has demonstrated no prejudice flowing from the allegedly inconsistent responses of the jury to the special questions put to them. Therefore, I dissent.
1. It is well established that, “[i]n determining whether there is an inconsistency in the jury’s answers, the answers are to be viewed in the light of the attendant circumstances, including the pleadings, issues submitted, and the judge’s instructions” (emphasis added). Solimene v. B. Grauel & Co., KG, 399 Mass. 790, 800 (1987). In this case, considering the instructions actually given to the jury, the jury’s verdict was not inconsistent.
Although the judge at some points gave a proper definition of breach of warranty, in his charge he gave also an unduly restrictive definition of the same concept. Most importantly, during the crucial clarification to the jury, the judge gave an unduly narrow definition of warranty liability. The judge instructed the jury to determine whether “the product [was] reasonably fit for the purposes intended or was it defective so that it was not reasonably fit for the purposes intended ” (emphasis supplied). In Hayes v. Ariens Co., 391 Mass. 407, 412-413 (1984), we stated that a warranty “include[s] the uses *100intended by the manufacturer and those which are reasonably foreseeable” (emphasis supplied). The judge’s restrictive charge may have left the jury with the mistaken impression that, in order to show a breach of warranty, the plaintiff had to show that the product was not fit for the purpose for which it was sold. The judge’s supplementary charge did not make it clear that people in the plaintiff’s position, i.e., foreseeable users of the asbestos material, may recover under a warranty claim if the product sold was unreasonably dangerous. At the very least, the charge on warranty must be viewed as confusing to the jury.
When instructing the jury on warranty liability, the judge should have tracked more closely the language of Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A (1965). See Back v. Wickes Corp., 375 Mass. 633, 640 (1978); Hayes v. Ariens Co., supra. “Recognizing that the seller is in the best position to ensure product safety, the law of strict liability imposes on the seller a duty to prevent the release of ‘any product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer,’ into the stream of commerce. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A (1) (1965). This duty is unknown in the law of negligence and it is not fulfilled even if the seller takes all reasonable measures to make his product safe. The liability issue focuses on whether the product was defective and unreasonably dangerous and not on the conduct of the user or the seller” (emphasis supplied). Correia v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 388 Mass. 342, 355 (1983). Hayes v. Ariens Co., supra at 413. The judge did not explain adequately these principles to the jury.
The judge erroneously instructed the jury as to the relationship between warranty liability and negligence liability. The judge strongly implied to the jury that they could find the defendant negligent without finding that the defendant had breached the warranty of merchantability. The judge stated, “Question 3 dealing with the breach of warranty doesn’t depend at all on how you have dealt with Questions 1 [Negligence] and 2 [Causation] .... But Questions 1 and 2 dealing with negligence have nothing to do with whether or not there was a breach of warranty. . . .” The judge’s supplementary instruc*101tian was highly misleading in light of the holding of Hayes v. Ariens Co., supra. When a jury ask for a clarification regarding the relationship between negligence and warranty liability, the trial judge should explain that a “defendant cannot be found to have been negligent without having breached the warranty of merchantability. ” Hayes v. Ariens Co., supra at 410. As the court itself states, the judge did not do this but instead “instructed the jury that the breach of warranty question was independent of the negligence question, stating that they were two different theories of liability.” Ante at 95.
However, the fact that such errors were made does not mean that the defendant is entitled to a new trial. Nowhere does the defendant argue that it made timely objection to this improper instruction.1 The record does not show an objection to the charge on this point. Thus, the issue was not preserved for appeal.
2. Additionally, the defendant was not prejudiced by the judge’s errors. See Mass. R. Civ. P. 61, 365 Mass. 829(1974). The judge gave a correct instruction on the law of negligence.2 The judge’s erroneous instructions on warranty liability and on the relationship between warranty and negligence liability had no effect on the validity of the negligence charge or verdict. If anything, the defendant was benefited by the judge’s charge on warranty liability, for, as the jury’s actual verdict demonstrated, it was less likely that the defendant would be found liable given the judge’s restrictive definition of the warranty of merchantability. In such circumstances, it hardly can be *102argued that the defendant was prejudiced by the judge’s erroneous charge. To require a new trial because of the jury’s violation of abstract legal principles, as to which they were never properly informed, seems to me to encourage parties to lie in wait to see if they can salvage a lost cause on legal technicalities. Where no viable challenge has been mounted to the finding of negligence, I think it unconscionable to subject this plaintiff to yet another trial.
The verdict on negligence should stand, and the judgment should be affirmed.

 The court’s reliance on the defendant’s objection after the jury returned their responses, namely, “Raymark told the judge that ‘the finding of negligence and the finding of no breach of warranty [are] . . . hopelessly inconsistent,’ and that ‘they can’t have no breach of warranty and negligence,’ ” is misplaced. This objection clearly was not to the charge given but related only to the jury’s answers.

 On appeal, the defendant does not challenge the validity of the judge’s instructions on negligence. At most, the defendant claims that the judge should have reinstructed the jury on all of the law at issue, including the law of negligence. The defendant’s requested additional instructions on negligence did not differ materially from the instructions which the judge had given previously.