Court Opinion

ID: 9584508
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:49:07.02803+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:04.352934
License: Public Domain

Currie, J.
(on motion for rehearing). Counsel for defendants, in the brief filed in support of their motion for rehearing, contend that the guardian ad litem for plaintiff waived the issue as to whether the plaintiff child could be held to be guilty of contributory negligence by not objecting to the inclusion in the special verdict of the questions inquiring as to her negligence.
Seven recent decisions of this court are cited in support of such contention. In four of such cases the error in the verdict complained of was that questions were included in the verdict which should not have been, and in the other three we find the reverse situation where error is claimed because of the failure of the verdict to contain a question omitted therefrom. However, in all seven the only way to have cured the alleged error, if it were determined that the appellants were correct in their contentions, would have been to have ordered a new trial. The reason why a new trial would have been *341bnecessary in the four cases in which alleged erroneous questions were inserted in the verdict is because of the possible effect of the answers thereto on the comparative-negligence question. The reason for invoking waiver in such type of case against the party whose counsel has failed to voice a timely objection to the form of the verdict was well stated by Mr. Justice Hughes in Nimits v. Motor Transport Co. (1948), 253 Wis. 362, 364, 34 N. W. (2d) 116, as follows:
“Counsel for the parties have a distinct obligation to aid in the preparation of special verdicts and to voice objection to the form of questions, if such questions are objectionable, when it will afford an opportunity to the trial court to correct them.3’ (Emphasis supplied.)
In the instant case the error in the form of the special verdict can be fully rectified without a resort to a new trial in so far as the issues of negligence are concerned. All that needs be done is to treat the jury’s answers as to the questions inquiring as to the plaintiff child’s negligence, and to the comparative-negligence question, as surplusage, which they are in view of our decision in Shaske v. Hron (1954), 266 Wis. 384, 63 N. W. (2d) 706. Therefore, there is no reason to invoke the rule of waiver contended for by defendants’ counsel.
Counsel for defendants also maintain that the issue of the negligence of Tesch as to lookout presented a jury issue and should not be decided as a matter of law. We did not intend in our opinion to hold that Tesch was negligent as to lookout as a matter of law, but rather to point out that there was evidence to substantiate the jury’s determination finding him causally negligent in that respect. The reason why our mandate restricted the new trial to the issue of damages only was because we could perceive no good reason why the issue of negligence should be litigated again.
By the Court. — The motion for rehearing is denied with $25 costs.