Court Opinion

ID: 9791619
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:14:40.705338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:37.360706
License: Public Domain

Six, J.,
dissenting and concurring: I would affirm the trial court. My dissent addresses three issues identified by the issue numbers in the majority opinion: (4) the exclusion of evidence about American Red Ball Transit Company, Inc.’s, (Red Ball) operations before November 8, 1984; (5) exclusion of evidence of Southwest Movers, Inc.’s, (Southwest) recordkeeping practices; and (6) jury instructions on ratification or authorization. I concur in the majority’s thoughtful analysis of the difficult constitutional questions and in the remaining issues.
*361Exclusion of Evidence
A threshold observation is important. The jury found that punitive damages should be awarded against Red Ball in the sum of $100,000 and Printup for $20,000.
The conscious pain and suffering award to Barry L. Smith, the administrator of the estate of Glen C. Smith (the Administrator), was $1,000. The $1,000 actual damage award, which is the linchpin in the case at bar, was jointly and severally assessed against Printup, Red Ball, and Southwest.
The trial court entered judgment on the wrongful death claim in the amount of $199,881.85 for the plaintiffs Barry Smith, Lisa Smith, and Brian Smith as the heirs-at-law of Glen C. Smith. That judgment is not before us. Phillip D. Elliott, the heir at law of Carolyn Sue Elliott, recovered a judgment of $139,844.91 in his wrongful death action. No punitive damages claim arising from the death of Ms. Elliott is before us.
The majority, in negating the amounts, has affirmed the punitive exposure of Red Ball and Printup. On retrial, the pre-November 8, 1984, Red Ball evidence that was excluded will not go to the second jury. The only new evidence for the second jury will relate to Southwest’s recordkeeping practices.
On September 15, 1987, the date of the accident, Printup, who was employed by Southwest, had been “leased out” to Red Ball for 4 to 5 years. Printup only drove for Red Ball. Red Ball dispatched him, and he turned in his shipping documents and driving logs to Red BalL His expense receipts were turned in to Southwest for reimbursement. The expense receipts are not at issue.
The majority finds that the Administrator’s substantial rights have been affected, and so the error was not harmless under K.S.A. 60-261, by: (1) the exclusion from the jury of the Southwest records, and (2) the exclusion of the pre-November 8, 1984, Red Ball records from consideration by the judge during the statutory punitive damages hearing. I do not agree.
Rulings on the admissibility of evidence fall within the sound discretion of the trial court. The Administrator, who objects to the trial court’s ruling, must show abuse of discretion. Our standard of review on abuse of discretion instructs us that such abuse *362exists only when no reasonable person would take the view adopted by the trial court. Enlow v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 249 Kan. 732, 740, 822 P.2d 617 (1991).
I find no abuse of discretion. The Red Ball limitation was imposed only on records of events occurring before November 8, 1984. The Administrator was entitled to introduce records covering a period of approximately three years before the accident. A relevancy ruling based on remoteness ordinarily rests in the discretion of the trial court. The abuse of discretion standard controls. Tucker v. Lower, 200 Kan. 1, 6, 434 P.2d 320 (1967). The trial judge explained the selection of the November date:
“THE COURT: . . . the date is a certain period of time giving, I think, it is two months, giving the company the chance to implement the changes made after the settlement with the federal agency.
“MR. FISHER [Plaintiff’s Counsel]: So you aré intending to exclude the fact that they were cited for safety defects by the federal government? “THE COURT: Yes.
“THE COURT: You are going to be able to show hbw they were functioning on that date [November 8, 1984] forward, and then you are going to be able to show how they were doing after that.
“MR. FISHER: Okay, that’s fine.”
The recordkeeping practices of Southwest were excluded. I cannot say that such exclusion was an abuse of discretion when Printup, for a period of 4 or 5 years before the accident, had been driving only for Red Ball. This is particularly true when the facts indicate that the relevant records, e.g., the driving logs and shipping documents, were turned into Red Ball.
The majority finds that the trial court should be reversed on the evidence issues because “[t]here is evidence in the record from which the jury could infer that Printup Was tired arid fell asléep and lost control of the tractor-trailer.”
The majority candidly observes that “[t]he accident investigation was not conclusive as to whether Printup fell asleep at the wheel. Patrolman Brent Joy was equivocal about whether driver fatigue was a factor-.” In fact, Officer Heryford testified that if Printup had performed like the normal sleeping driver, his truck would have gone off the right side of the road instead of crossing the median. However, I agree with the majority’s statement: “[T]he jury was entitled to weigh this evidence as it saw fit.” *363The majority observes that “[t]he jury could have found that Printup’s fatigue caused or contributed to the accident. The inconsistency of his testimony and his logs could support an inference that he was tired because he had worked more hours than he should have.” My point is that records from Red Ball, the entity controlling Printup’s over-the-road movement, for a period of approximately three years before the accident, provide a reasonable document source to demonstrate laxity and establish whether a fatigue factor was present on September 15, 1987. The post-November 8, 1984, period is adequate to establish, as of September 15, 1987, what Red Ball knew or should have known from log books, records of hours of service violations, and records of Printup’s failure to comply with safety regulations. Because Southwest did not receive the log books, dispatch Printup, or process his shipping documents, I reason that the trial court ruling as to Southwest’s records was not an abuse of discretion.
Jury Instructions
My third area of disagreement relates to the majority’s reversal based on the jury instructions. The majority holds that the trial court’s failure to define authorization was clearly erroneous and that the instructions on ratification were defective. The majority reasons that the Administrator suffered no prejudice from the jury’s determination that punitive damages should be awarded against Red Ball and Printup. Has not the majority grafted an anomaly onto its rationale? Red Ball was branded with punitive damages by the defective instructions used at trial. The ratification instruction, although defective as to Southwest, was, according to the majority, a proper instruction as to Red Ball.
On remand, a different jury, considering a different mix of evidence and receiving different instructions, will determine Southwest’s punitive exposure. Red Ball will be on the sideline. Will the second jury be informed of the punitive awards against Printup and Red Ball? Could any aspect of the Southwest records forming the new evidence mix possibly relate positively to Red Ball on the authorization or ratification issue? A change in the multi-party formula resulting in bifurcation of the punitive liability determination also will change the chemistry of the remand litigation.
*364The majority opinion discusses “authorization and ratification,” using reasoning from our agency law cases and punitive damage cases from other jurisdictions. The majority has informed the trial court that “[ijnstructions upon remand should be consistent with this opinion.” The trial court is left to refashion the correct authorization and ratification instruction when the case returns for retrial. Red Ball also appealed on the ratification instruction issue. The punitive damages award against Red Ball resulted from two instructions and a single special interrogatory response by the jury on the verdict form. Red Ball objected to all three. Red Ball contends that the instant case involved a one-time tort; consequently, the Administrator must show Red Ball did something after the accident to signal that Printup’s behavior was acceptable.
I also express concern as to the analysis of “authorized or ratified” under K.S.A. 1992 Supp. 60-3701(d)(l). The majority finds the failure to give an authorization instruction clearly erroneous. The majority acknowledges that “[mjany of the cases we have read and discussed in this opinion speak of ratification and authorization together, but they all suggest that if corporate management obviously tolerates the kind of conduct that causes the injury, it amounts to ratification and/or authorization.” In the majority’s analysis, the terms “authorization” and “ratification” are linked together. Query: What distinction between the two has been identified by the majority?
The trial court defined ratification to mean, “the acceptance of a course of conduct or act with an intent to ratify, and with full knowledge of all the material circumstances.” The “full knowledge” phrase appears to be objectionable to the majority. I disagree. Punitive damages, because of their penal nature, are not favored in the law. Courts must be cautious in seeing that they are not improperly or unwisely awarded. Commercial Credit Equipment Corp. v. Stamps, 920 F.2d 136.1, 1370 (7th Cir. 1990).
Commercial Credit is cited and distinguished in the majority’s view. In Commercial Credit, the employer did not have actual knowledge of the employee’s wrongful act. The majority indicates that the punitive damages cases from other jurisdictions are distinguishable because in those cases there were facts that should have put the employer on notice that the employee was engaged in misconduct. I find difficulty in understanding how the punitive *365damages cases from other jurisdictions cited by the majority support the majority’s conclusion that authorization of ratification may be implied. Knowledge is a key aspect of virtually all of the punitive damages cases cited by the majority. For example, in Shout v. Black Clawson Co., 689 F. Supp. 774, 783 (S.D. Ohio 1988), the court stated, “We further concluded that certain of the defendant’s high-level managers knew or should have known that Lewis was wrongfully withholding plaintiff’s annual performance evaluations and salary reviews.” In Brink’s Inc. v. City of New York, 546 F. Supp. 403, 412 (S.D.N.Y. 1982), the court observed that “[t]he jury could reasonably have found that over a substantial period Brink’s’ senior management officials, with knowledge of repeated illicit activities and violations of company rules by a number of employees, failed to take appropriate investigative measures in an effort to apprehend and discharge dishonest employees.” See also Khalid Bin Talal Etc. v. E. F. Hutton & Co., 720 F. Supp. 671, 683 (N.D. Ill. 1989) (Hutton was aware of illegal securities trading and “allowed [the] trading to continue.” “This activity more than suffices to constitute authorization of the doing and manner of the act, as well as ratification and approval thereof.”); Hart v. National Mortgage & Land Co., 189 Cal. App. 3d 1420, Syl. ¶ 7, 235 Cal. Rptr. 68 (1987) (Plaintiff alleged his superiors were aware that other employees were harassing him. “The court should have permitted the employee to amend his pleadings to allege that his superiors’ knowledge and failure to act constituted ratification by the employer, or alternatively, that the coworker was an ‘officer, director or managing agent,’ which also constituted ratification under the statute.”); Hartman v. Shell Oil Co., 68 Cal. App. 3d 240, 250, 137 Cal. Rptr. 244 (1977) (“The bringing of an action or the basing of a defense on an unauthorized act with knowledge of the material facts is, at a minimum, some evidence of ratification.)”; Wirig v. Kinney Shoe Corp., 448 N.W.2d 526, 534 (Minn. App. 1989), aff’d in part, rev’d in part on other grounds 461 N.W.2d 374 (Minn. 1990) (The court found that there was evidence of the principal’s approval of the alleged misconduct.).
I favor a “knew or should have known” element in the definition of authorization or ratification under K.S.A. 1992 Supp. 60-3702(d)(1). Definitional reasoning arising from nonpunitive tradi*366tional agency cases should be applied with caution in a K.S.A. 1992 Supp. 60-3701(d)(l) punitive damages case. We have before us a first impression case. The majority could assist the bench and bar by drafting a specific instruction on “authorization or ratification” and thus share this court’s view of the proper language to be used in a future punitive damages case.
The trial in the case at bar was lengthy. It began on July 9, 1991, and ended on July 31, 1991. The record consists of 25 separate volumes. The case was tried before an experienced trial judge. The parties were represented by experienced counsel. We received an amicus brief from the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association. In my view, although the parties may not have received a perfect trial, they received a fair one. They cannot ask for more. See Leiker v. Gafford, 245 Kan. 325, 366, 778 P.2d 823 (1989). The failure to instruct on authorization was error. I find in reviewing the record that substantial justice was done under the totality of the circumstances. Any instruction developed with hindsight from within the definitional perimeters of the majority’s discussion on “authorization and ratification” would not have altered the result (particularly considering the majority’s acknowledged sameness linkage of “authorization” and “ratification"). The instruction omission was not reversible or prejudicial error. See Lucas v. Pearce, 223 Kan. 749, 753, 576 P.2d 670 (1978) (failure to give an issue instruction in a medical malpractice case). I conclude that any error that may have occurred was harmless. See K.S.A. 60-261 and K.S.A. 60-2105.
Holmes, C;J., and McFarland, J., join in the foregoing concurring and dissenting opinion.