Court Opinion

ID: 9632202
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:06:47.739853+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:11.381705
License: Public Domain

FRIEDMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part.
I join the court’s opinion, except for Part II B, captioned “Harmless Error.” It holds that the trial court’s instruction to the jury that Biegas was more than 50 percent at fault in the accident was not harmless error. I come out the other way on that issue.
The trial judge instructed the jury that he had determined that Biegas was at least 51 percent at fault for the accident, and that the jury could find that Biegas’ fault ranged from 51 percent to 100 percent (the “limiting instruction”). The jury found that Biegas was 53 percent at fault.
If the jury had found that Biegas’ degree of fault was 51 percent, I would agree that the error in giving the limiting instruction was not harmless. For in that situation the jury’s verdict could have equally well rested on either of two inconsistent theories. It could have reflected the jury’s independent judgment that Biegas was in fact 51 percent responsible for the accident. Or it could have reflected the jury’s conclusion that although it believed Biegas’ fault was less than 51 percent, the court’s instruction required it to set his fault at that level. In the latter situation, it could not be said that without the limiting instructions the jury likely *383would have concluded that Biegas’ level of fault was less than 51 percent.
In the present case, however, the jury’s verdict that Biegas’ fault was 53 percent necessarily reflected the jury’s independent determination that his fault exceeded the 51 percent minimum it was required to apply. In that circumstance, I cannot say that there was any realistic likelihood that, without the limiting percent instruction, the jury would have assessed Biegas’ fault level at less than 51 percent. The court’s contrary conclusion — resting upon statements that the jury “could have” weighed the evidence of comparative negligence differently, “may well have” or “could have” evaluated the evidence differently-is speculation and is insufficient to justify the conclusion that any error in the instruction was prejudicial.
We cannot say precisely what the jury would have done without the limiting instruction. We deal, however, with possibility, probability, and likelihood, not certainty. In the circumstances here I think the likelihood that without the limiting instruction the jury could or would have set Biegas’ fault at less than 51 percent is too slim to warrant concluding that the erroneous limiting instruction was not harmless.
I would affirm the district court’s judgment.