Court Opinion

ID: 9542281
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:32:39.415914+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:07:27.623799
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
PAULSON, Judge.
Dwight Rau and Hertha A. Rau, plaintiffs and appellants, have petitioned for a rehearing. Several alleged errors have been set forth in the petition. We have reviewed them and conclude that only one be given further consideration.
The Raus argue that the decision of this court was erroneous when it held that the instructions given to the jury by the district court on the issue of the proper standard of care to be applied to a minor engaged in an adult activity and on the issue of the proper definition of “gross negligence” could not be reviewed on appeal because of a failure of plaintiffs’ trial counsel to make a seasonable objection to those instructions in accordance with Rule 51(c) of the North Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure. More specifically, the Raus argue that an erroneous instruction which is sufficiently erroneous to misdirect the jury is reviewable on appeal, whether or not excepted to in accordance with Rule 51(c), N.D.R.Civ.P. In support of their position the Raus cite three North Dakota cases: Burkstrand v. Rasmussen, 77 N.D. 716, 45 N.W.2d 485 (1950); Grant v. Jacobs, 76 N.D. 1, 32 N.W.2d 881 (1948); and Huber v. Zeiszler, 37 N.D. 556, 164 N.W. 131 (1917). A perusal of these cases indicates they do not support the position urged upon this court by the Raus in their petition for rehearing. Rather these cases stand for the principle that a nondirection or an omission by the district court to instruct the jury on a particular point of law is reviewable by the Supreme Court on appeal even though that nondirection or omission by the district court to so instruct the jury was not objected to by trial counsel, if that nondirection or omission to instruct amounted to misdirection of the jury. The principle established by these cases is based upon § 28-1413 of the North Dakota Revised Code of 1943, which states:
“The court may submit the written instructions which it proposes to give to *8the jurors to counsel in the case for examination and may require such counsel, after a reasonable examination thereof, to designate such parts thereof as he may deem objectionable, and counsel thereupon must designate such parts of such instructions as he may deem improper. Thereafter only the parts so designated shall be excepted to by the counsel designating the same.”
As is apparent from § 28-1413, NDRC 1943, trial counsel in the instant case was not burdened with the responsibility of excepting to omissions in instructions which the district court proposed to give to the jury. Rather, trial counsel only bore the responsibility of excepting to such parts of the instructions as he may have deemed improper. Consequently, an omission by the district court to instruct the jury on a particular point of law. was reviewable by the Supreme Court on appeal and such an omission would be held to be reversible error if the effect of the omission were to misdirect the jury or, in other words, if the omission, considered in the light of all the other instructions given, would mislead the jury to the prejudice of the appellant, even though there was no exception taken by trial counsel by reason of such omission. While this was the rule which was applied by this Court, pursuant to § 28-1413, NDRC 1943, it has not been applied by this Court since the promulgation of the North Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure in 1957. This is clearly indicated by the cases cited in the opinion by this Court in the case at bar.
A reading of North Dakota Rule of Civil Procedure, 51(c), the counterpart to § 28-1413, NDRC 1943, clearly indicates why the rule for review of jury instructions discussed above is no longer followed in this State. Rule 51(c) states:
“Exceptions to instructions. The giving of instructions and the failure to instruct the jurors shall be deemed excepted to unless the court, before instructing the jurors, shall submit to counsel the written instructions which it proposes to give to the jurors and shall ask for exceptions to be noted, and thereupon counsel must designate such parts or omissions of such instructions as he may deem objectionable. Thereafter, only the parts or omissions so designated shall be excepted to by the counsel designating the same.” [Emphasis added.]
Thus, under Rule 51(c), N.D.R.Civ.P., trial counsel for the parties to litigation are charged with the responsibility of excepting, not only to any parts of proposed instructions, but are also charged with excepting to any omissions in the instructions, which omissions they consider are grounds for objection. Consequently, pursuant to Rule 51(c), N.D.R.Civ.P., this Court has consistently held that any instructions which are not seasonably objected to by trial counsel, pursuant to Rule 51(c), N.D. R.Civ.P., become the law of the case. Lembke v. Unke, 171 N.W.2d 837 (N.D.1969); Klokstad v. Ward, 131 N.W.2d 244 (N.D.1964).
If Rule 51(c) were to be applied to all cases inflexibly, manifest injustice would be a likely result. For that reason we believe our Rule 51(c) should not be an absolute Rule and that provision should be made for relief from such Rule in limited circumstances.
As the North Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure are patterned after the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, we adopt the federal interpretation. Federal Rule 51, though not identical to our Rule 51(c), is to the same effect, and reads in part:
“ . . . No party may assign as error the giving or the failure to give an instruction unless he objects thereto before the jury retires to consider its verdict, stating distinctly the matter to which he objects and the grounds of his objection. Opportunity shall be given to make the objection out of the hearing of the jury.”
*9The federal interpretation is explained in the case of McNello v. John B. Kelly, Inc., 283 F.2d 96 (C.A.3d Cir. 1960), wherein a construction worker, McNello, was injured when brickwork done by Kelly collapsed. On appeal, Kelly complained of improper instructions given by the trial court. The appellate court found, however, that Kelly did not protest in the trial court the aspect of the charge now complained of, even though he was given ample opportunity to do so. The appellate court stated, in McNello, supra 283 F.2d at 102:
“Therefore, by Kelly’s own inaction it is precluded from effectively raising this point on appeal. Rule 51, Fed.Rules Civ. Proc., 28 U.S.C. Nevertheless, it remains for us to consider whether the error below was so ‘fundamental’ as to permit us to review it despite the fact that no pertinent objection was made to the charge in the particulars indicated.”
The appellate court in McNello found that the instructions given to the jury on the matter of negligence were too general in nature and were not related to the evidence in the case before the jury. That court found that the instructions given by the trial court left to the jury the task of particularizing the legal standard and working out the alternatives possible under the facts. The appellate court in McNello found this error in instruction to be of a fundamental nature, allowing it to he reviewed despite Kelly’s failure to object to it at trial. In McNello, the court, quoting from Callwood v. Callwood, 3 Cir., 1956, 233 F.2d 784, 788, stated:
“ ‘We might, perhaps, in an extreme situation consider an objection to the charge, even in a civil case, made for the first time on appeal. We would not do so, however, unless the error in the charge was fundamental and highly prejudicial, and our failure to consider the •error would result in a gross miscarriage of justice.’”
This rule has been affirmed recently in the case of Harkins v. Ford Motor Company, 437 F.2d 276 (3 Cir. 1970). See also Hein v. Torgerson, Wis., 205 N.W.2d 408, 413 (1973).
In applying the rule that only fundamental and highly prejudicial error in instructions will be reviewed by this court in the absence of an objection in the trial court, we find that there has been no fundamental error in instructions in the instant case that constitutes misdirection.
In 2 Blashfield Auto Law 3rd Ed., § 103.3, at pages 242-243, it is said:
“The general standard of care governing the conduct of adults in the operation of motor vehicles, namely, reasonable care under all the circumstances, applies to the conduct of child drivers, and the child is not limited to the standard of care of a child of his own age, experience, intelligence, and capacity. However, under some authorities, a child is not held to the same standard of care as an adult, even though licensed to drive, and he is only required to exercise the amount of care which ordinarily is exercised by children of like age, experience, and intelligence under similar circumstances, and it has been declared that, in determining whether an infant has shown reasonable care, his infancy and want of experience are evidential factors to be weighed with the other circumstances.”
As shown by this quotation from Blashfield, not all jurisdictions have adopted the rule that child or minor drivers are subject to the same standard of care as adult drivers. North Dakota has never adopted the rule, and we therefore hold that failure to instruct the jury with respect to a rule that is not the law in North Dakota is not a fundamental or highly prejudicial error such that our failure to review it in the absence of objection at trial would result in a gross miscarriage of justice.
*10We further hold that the district court’s instruction on gross negligence was sufficient. As we held in Thornburg v. Perle-berg, 158 N.W.2d 188 (N.D.1968), in paragraph 4 of the syllabus :
“Instructions must be considered as a whole, and, if the instructions given fully and fairly present the law applicable to a certain issue, such instructions are sufficient even though the court refuses to . give a certain requested instruction in the exact form in which it is presented.”
For the reasons stated, the petition for rehearing is denied.
STRUTZ, C. J., and ERICKSTAD, TEIGEN and KNUDSON, JJ., concur.