Court Opinion

ID: 9884942
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:25:37.846902+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:47:54.698120
License: Public Domain

FOLEY, Judge
(concurring specially and dissenting).
I concur in part and dissent in part. I concur that this case should be remanded to the district court for trial allowing the defenses raised by appellant, but I disagree that we rule as a matter of law that it bé a court rather than jury trial. I submit the right to trial by jury on the question of reasonableness of the settlement that arises in a Miller-Shugart setting is guaranteed by the Minnesota Constitution.
The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate, and shall extend to all cases at law without regard to the amount in controversy. A jury trial may be waived by the parties in all cases in the manner prescribed by law. The legislature may provide that the agreement of five-sixths of a jury in a civil action or proceeding, after not less than six hours’ deliberation, is a sufficient verdict.
Minn. Const, art. I, § 4. See Minn.R.Civ.P. 38.01 and 39.01.
In Miller v. Shugart, 316 N.W.2d 729 (Minn.1982), the case was decided on cross-motions for summary judgment on undisputed facts. That left no material fact issues for trial and on that state of the record could be decided as a matter of law. Id. at 736. I do not read Miller as holding that summary judgment is appropriate in every settlement case or that if there is a trial, the case be determined by the court alone. Yet, that is what the majority holds, notwithstanding the constitutional right to trial by jury where money damages are sought, and here there are other factual issues raised by the defenses we now allow and with respect to the policies involved.
In Lemmer v. IDS Properties, Inc., 304 N.W.2d 864, 870 (Minn.1980), a jury trial was waived, as it was in Traver v. Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co., 418 N.W.2d 727 (Minn.Ct.App.1988), pet. for rev. denied (Minn. April 15, 1988), where the settlement agreement provided for trial of damages “to the court.” Id. at 729 (emphasis added). When Traver speaks of determining reasonableness of settlement as a matter of law, it is based on the factual and procedural posture of Miller. With undisputed facts, it can be determined as a matter of law by the court, not otherwise. Nor is there any language of the Supreme Court to suggest such a contrary conclusion. In Miller, the supreme court held:
[W]hile the judgment is binding and valid as between the stipulating parties,, it is not conclusive on the insurer. The burden of proof is on the claimant, the plaintiff judgment creditor, to show that the settlement is reasonable and prudent. The test as to whether the settlement is reasonable and prudent is what a reasonably prudent person in the position of the defendant would have settled for on the merits of plaintiff’s claim. This involves a consideration of the facts bearing on the liability and damage aspects of plaintiffs claim, as well as the risks of going to trial.
Id. at 735 (emphasis added), quoted in Economy Fire & Casualty Co. v. Iverson, 426 N.W.2d 195, 200 (Minn.Ct.App.1988), pet. for rev. granted (Minn. July 28, 1988). The supreme court further held:
Plaintiff’s stipulated judgment was not conclusive on the insurer until the insurer had an opportunity to litigate the issues of whether or not it was bound by the judgment.
Miller, 316 N.W.2d at 736, quoted in Economy, 426 N.W.2d at 200.
My colleagues and I differ as to the nature of the proceeding on remand to determine reasonableness, i.e., by a motion for summary judgment — a court trial — or a jury trial. It may be that each case that involves a Miller-Shugart settlement will have to be separately examined as to the *224manner and way in which the issues are raised and to be litigated.
In negligence cases where damages are sought for either or both personal injury or property damage, it is fundamental law that trial by jury is awarded the parties, unless waived. See Minn. Const, art. I, § 4. It should be no different with respect to a Miller-Shugart settlement. Since the settlement is not binding on the insurer, Miller, 316 N.W.2d at 735, and since reasonableness is tested by a consideration of the entire circumstances as to liability and damages, the right to trial by jury should be preserved, including the issue of comparative fault. See Economy, 426 N.W.2d at 200 n. 2.
I differ with my learned colleague Chief Judge Wozniak when he held in Osgood v. Medical, Inc., 415 N.W.2d 896 (Minn.Ct.App.1987), pet. for rev. denied (Minn. Feb. 12, 1988), that reasonableness is to be determined as a matter of law by the court. Id. at 903. That holding was based on Miller, but a close reading of Miller reflects that summary judgment was upheld in that case on undisputed facts. To the extent the majority holds that reasonableness is a question of law in every case determined solely by the court, Osgood, Traver and Buysse v. Baumann-Furrie & Co., 428 N.W.2d 419 (Minn.Ct.App.1988), should be overruled.
What the Michigan Supreme Court has said as to the resolution of negligence issues by a jury rather than by the court is equally applicable here on the question of fact as to the reasonableness of a Miller-Shugart settlement.
The preference for jury resolution of the issue of negligence is not, however, simply an expedient reflecting the difficulty of stating a rule that will readily resolve all cases; rather, it is rooted in the belief that the jury’s judgment of what is reasonable under the circumstances of a particular case is more likely than the judicial judgment to represent the community’s judgment of how reasonable persons would conduct themselves.
Moning v. Alfono, 400 Mich. 425, 435-36, 254 N.W.2d 759, 763 (1977) (emphasis added).