Court Opinion

ID: 9429436
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:26:46.109272+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:19.594196
License: Public Domain

Justice Brennan,
with whom Justice Marshall joins,
concurring in the judgment.
I agree with the Court that the Court of Appeals employed an erroneous legal standard to determine whether a new trial was required in this case, and that the Court of Appeals compounded that error by failing to remand the case to the District Court for a hearing and decision on the motion for new trial in the first instance. I concur only in the judgment, however, because I have difficulty understanding the import of the legal standard adopted by the Court.
The Court of Appeals ordered a new trial because Ronald Payton, who later was chosen as jury foreman, incorrectly answered an important question posed to prospective jurors on voir dire. Specifically, although asked whether any family members had “sustained any injuries . . . that resulted in any disability or prolonged pain or suffering,” Payton failed to disclose a previous injury his son had incurred in a truck-tire explosion. The court concluded that, because the information available to counsel during voir dire was erroneous, Payton’s failure to respond “prejudiced the Greenwoods’ right to peremptory challenge.” 687 F. 2d 338, 342 (CA10 1982). It therefore held that the Greenwoods’ motion for a new trial should have been granted, and entered judgment granting the motion.
I agree with the Court that a finding that less than complete information was available to counsel conducting voir dire does not by itself require a new trial. I cannot join, however, in the legal standard asserted by the Court’s opinion. In my view, the proper focus when ruling on a motion for new trial in this situation should be on the bias of the juror and the resulting prejudice to the litigant. More specifically, to be awarded a new trial, a litigant should be required to demonstrate that the juror incorrectly responded to *558a material question on voir dire, and that, under the facts and circumstances surrounding the particular case, the juror was biased against the moving litigant. See, e. g., McCoy v. Goldston, 652 F. 2d 654, 659-660 (CA6 1981).
When applying this standard, a court should recognize that “[t]he bias of a prospective juror may be actual or implied; that is, it may be bias in fact or bias conclusively presumed as [a] matter of law.” United States v. Wood, 299 U. S. 123, 133 (1936). See also Smith v. Phillips, 455 U. S. 209, 221-224 (1982) (O’Connor, J., concurring). Because the bias of a juror will rarely be admitted by the juror himself, “partly because the juror may have an interest in concealing his own bias and partly because the juror may be unaware of it,” id., at 221-222, it necessarily must be inferred from surrounding facts and circumstances. Therefore, for a court to determine properly whether bias exists, it must consider at least two questions: are there any facts in the case suggesting that bias should be conclusively presumed; and, if not, is it more probable than not that the juror was actually biased against the litigant. Whether the juror answered a particular question on voir dire honestly or dishonestly, or whether an inaccurate answer was inadvertent or intentional, are simply factors to be considered in this latter determination of actual bias.* I therefore cannot agree with the Court when it *559asserts that a new trial is not warranted whenever a prospective juror provides an honest answer to the question posed. Cf. ante, at 556. One easily can imagine cases in which a prospective juror provides what he subjectively believes to be an honest answer, yet that same answer is objectively incorrect and therefore suggests that the individual would be a biased juror in the particular case.
Given the nature of this legal standard, and given that no claim is raised in this case that bias should be conclusively presumed, the Court of Appeals clearly erred by deciding the issue of juror bias itself rather than remanding the issue to the District Court for a hearing and decision in the first instance. Motions for new trial on the basis of juror bias are left to the sound discretion of the trial court, and its determination should not be lightly disturbed by an appellate court. This is especially true when decision on the motion turns, as it does here, on the particular facts and circumstances involved. See ante, at 551-552, n. 3, and 556. The trial court in this case, however, did not reach the point of exercising discretion because it never was notified about the results of the informal examination of juror Payton. Accordingly, the case should be remanded to the District Court for a hearing and decision consistent with the principles outlined above.

The Court of Appeals recognized several other factors in this case, not completely acknowledged by the Court’s opinion, which might suggest that juror Payton was biased or that his potential bias resulted in prejudice to the Greenwoods. For example, by claiming during his informal examination after trial that “having accidents are a part of life,” Payton may have displayed insufficient sensitivity to the Greenwoods’ claims in this product liability action. This potential bias could only have been exacerbated by the fact that Payton served as foreman of the jury. Moreover, the jury initially returned a verdict assessing $0.00 in damages despite the fact that Billy Greenwood lost both his feet in the lawnmower accident; only upon reconvening after being admonished by the trial judge did the jury assess damages totaling $375,000. These factors should be considered along with any other relevant facts and circumstances by the District Court on remand.