Court Opinion

ID: 9603634
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:08:22.97596+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:42.253908
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
dissenting.
What the trial bench and bar may perceive as a flaw in the Justice Bakes analysis of this complex case is his approach to the issues presented. He deals first with the sanctity of jury verdicts, saying that:
As a preliminary matter, we must consider whether the jury’s findings are supported by substantial competent evidence. If they are, then both the trial court and this Court are bound by the jury’s verdict. When reviewing a jury verdict the evidence adduced at trial must be construed in a light favorable to the party who prevailed in the jury’s verdict.
(At 821, 761 P.2d at 1173) (emphasis added). No one, including this writer, will quarrel with that truism, as a general proposition. BUT, in this particular case, the *851single biggest and primary issue which was presented to the trial court, and upon which it ruled favorably to the plaintiff, was the impact made upon the jury by defense counsel’s final summation where he did not merely mention the Idaho Power settlement, but implied to the jury that it was so substantial that plaintiff’s pursuit of Coleman Company and Coast Catamaran was to gain a windfall. If this was improper and inflammatory,1 and hence prejudicial to the plaintiff in the eyes of the jurors, as the man on the scene, i.e., the trial judge, so concluded, then it behooves an appellate court to examine the jury’s findings with somewhat of a jaundiced eye. Justice Bakes, however, has approached the opinion-writing task by first tackling the jury findings, and much later turning to defense counsel’s remarks in summation, the essence of which must be found elsewhere than in his opinion. Only in that manner is he able to give great deference to the jury findings.
When Justice Bakes in his opinion finally reaches the issue raised as to imposition of sanctions for the court-found violation the in limine order, he encounters no problem because prior to defense counsel’s summation it was “the trial court itself which ‘rang the bell’ and instructed the jury several times on separate occasions regarding the settlement agreement with Idaho Power.” (At 837, 761 P.2d at 1189). Justice Bakes does not favor his readers with the trial court's instructions which did so, and the reader may well wonder if such were of the same ilk as that which defense counsel said to the jury. It would be one thing for a court to simply tell a jury that a given defendant had settled with the plaintiff, but quite another for counsel to tell the jury, as happened in Rojas v. Lindsay Mfg. Co., 108 Idaho 590, 701 P.2d 208 (1985):
Now, you will be asked on the verdict form whether Mr. Marshall was negligent; and I submit to you that he was negligent. And I submit to you that his, his action was what caused this accident. Otherwise why would he have settled? I can tell you — and I don’t feel real good right now; but it is not very much fun trying lawsuits. It is hard work. And if you can settle, it is a lot easier. But if you think you are right, you have a right to defend yourself.
******
Anything can hurt you if used improperly. And we submit that the cause of the accident was the improper use of the machine by Kenneth Marshall; and Kenneth Marshall recognized the use of the machine when he injured Pedro Rojas because he settled this case. He got out.
Rojas, supra, p. 592, 701 P.2d 208.2 Where the trial court found in Ross’s case the remarks of counsel to be in violation his order, a contrary conclusion should not be so readily forthcoming from appellate judges who were not privy to the scene.
In that regard there is language in Justice Brennan’s dissenting opinion in California v. Green, 399 U.S. 149, 90 S.Ct. 1930, 26 L.Ed.2d 489 (1970) which he borrowed from People v. Green, 70 Cal.2d 654, 75 Cal.Rptr. 782, 451 P.2d 422 (Cal.1969) which to any experienced trial lawyer is highly appropriate and must be kept in mind when appellate judges review a cold transcript of trial testimony. Because Justice Mosk, who wrote People v. Green, was discussing the use of a preliminary hearing transcript at trial, rather than a live witness (cf. State v. Elisondo, 114 Idaho 412, 757 P.2d 675 (1988)), liberty has been taken to paraphrase his eloquence to fit an appeal transcript:
Lost in a cold reading of the transcript is the more subtle yet undeniable effect of counsel’s rhetorical style, his pauses for emphasis and his variations in tone, as well as his personal rapport with the jurors, as he pursues his peroration. Forensic indignation, whether expressed physically or verbally, may produce good results in special circumstances. Coun*852sel must always temper his summation to the individual jurors, using their reactions as a guide to the most effective line of argument. He will keep in mind that he is a performer and the juries are his audience. No good performer ignores his audience, and all good performances are conducted for the purpose of favorably impressing the audience.
Having concurred in Justice Huntley’s dissenting opinion, I am also in agreement with Justice Bakes that the award of attorneys fees cannot stand by reason of its having been in part based on the defendant’s failure to conduct settlement negotiations in good faith. In that regard the trial court should have felt itself bound by our holding in Payne v. Foley, 102 Idaho 760, 639 P.2d 1126 (1982). Additionally, as to Odenwalt v. Zaring, 102 Idaho 1, 624 P.2d 383 (1980), although Justice Huntley has taken note of my dissent in that case, note is also to be taken that Justice McFadden joined that dissent. Had Justice Huntley been on the Court at that time, and entertained the same view of Odenwalt as now, the Odenwalt mistake would not have happened.

. Justice Huntley’s opinion synopsizes the verbatim content of those remarks. (At 841, 761 P.2d at 1193).

. Justice Bakes acknowledges that the very purpose of the motion for an order in limine was to avoid misuse of the court’s advising the jury of a settlement, based on the Rojas case.