Court Opinion

ID: 9570739
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:25:48.160047+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:15:29.855174
License: Public Domain

*753Hale, C.J.
(dissenting) — I doubt that any jury has ever deliberated upon its verdict entirely free of the kind of remarks and observations described in the court’s opinion. To vacate a verdict because of them I think violates the sanctity of the jury room and contrary to long-standing principles permits the jury to impeach its own verdict. Setting aside this verdict on the stated grounds erects new barriers to finality of verdict and judgment in a judicial system already overburdened with superfluous procedural machinery.
The Court of Appeals, I think, decided this case correctly on the basis that the issue before it was
substantially the same as the question resolved by the Supreme Court in State v. Gobin, 73 Wn.2d 206, 210, 437 P.2d 389 (1968)
and I would accordingly affirm that court’s decision.
Finley and Wright, JJ., concur with Hale, C.J.