Court Opinion

ID: 9553751
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:34:30.875832+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:32:12.314376
License: Public Domain

Wertz, J.
(dissenting): I am unable to agree with the majority opinion of the court insofar as a new trial is ordered on the ground *17of abuse of discretion by the trial court, and I set forth my views below.
It is the well-established rule in this jurisdiction that before a judgment will be reversed and a new trial granted because of misconduct of a juror in the jury room, it must affirmatively appear that the substantial rights of the complaining party have been prejudiced thereby. (Domann v. Pence, 183 Kan. 135, 325 P. 2d 321; Johnson v. Colorado Interstate Gas Co., 182 Kan. 474, 322 P. 2d 781; Randle v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, 181 Kan. 416, 420, 312 P. 2d 235; Pulkrabek v. Lampe, 179 Kan. 204, 293 P. 2d 998, 54 ALR 2d 732; Bohannon v. Peoples Taxicab Co., 145 Kan. 86, 64 P. 2d 1; Clark v. Brady, 126 Kan. 59, 266 Pac. 740.) There is no presumption that prejudice results from such misconduct. (Clark v. Brady, supra, 61; Pulkrabek v. Lampe, supra, 208.) Thus, it is incumbent upon the complaining party not only to show and establish misconduct but also to affirmatively establish prejudice affecting the verdict.
Upon the facts of the record, I am unable to agree that the defendant has affirmatively shown prejudice affecting the verdict. It is a well-known fact that electricity will jump or arc from an object which is electrically charged to a metal object coming into close proximity with it. (Pascoe v. Southern Cal. Edison Co., 102 Cal. App. 2d 254, 227 P. 2d 555.) The trial court correctly instructed the jury: “You have the right to take into consideration, in weighing the testimony, . . . any knowledge you may have common to mankind generally that touches upon the matter and things testified about.” It was stipulated by defendant that deceased was electrocuted and the jury found that the antenna did not come in contact with the high-voltage wire. The only other conclusion that could be reached, in view of defendant’s admission, was that the high-voltage current of electricity jumped or arced into the antenna. Therefore, the jury might properly consider the arcing propensities of electricity even though no direct evidence was introduced on that subject. Defendant, in its brief, argues that every child of ten years knows it is dangerous to come in close proximity to electric wires. Why is it dangerous? Obviously because electricity will jump or arc. Thus, defendant, in effect, admits that the arcing propensity of electricity is a well-known fact.
This court has held that it was not prejudicial for (1) the jury to make use of a dictionary in the jury room during its deliberations (Pulkrabek v. Lampe, supra); (2) the jury to take into the jury *18room and read a newspaper article concerning the case during its deliberations (Randle v. Kansas Turnpike Authority, supra); (3) a juror, in a pipe-line condemnation case, to state that “pipe lines never made him a dime”; that “the more you can get out of them the better he would like it”; that “he was ‘against pipe-lines’ ”; that “they [the pipe-line companies] were ‘paying $2.00 per rod per year in Texas and Oklahoma’,” and that “he knew what pipe-line companies made from lines like this one and there was no reason why landowners should not be well paid.” (Johnson v. Colorado Interstate Gas Co., supra, 476.) In Domann v. Pence, supra, we held that the jury’s remarks, made during deliberation outside the evidence, as to whether defendant was covered by liability insurance were not prejudicial. While the conduct of the juror in question may have been improper, it cannot be said to have been, prejudicial when measured by the yardstick of both reason and the long-established precedent of this court.
Moreover, the jury returned its verdict and was discharged by the court before any objections with respect to misconduct were raised. The defendant then proceeded to “try the jury” at the hearing on the motion for a new trial. This was as improper as the alleged misconduct of the juror. It has long been the rule, founded upon public policy, that jurors will not be permitted to impeach a verdict to which they have deliberately agreed under the sanction of an oath. There would be little virtue or finality in verdicts if they could be impeached and overthrown by the evidence of jurors and litigants. It has been said that such a situation would result in perjury and bribery and there would be no end to litigation in cases tried before juries. (State v. Buseman, 124 Kan. 496, 499, 260 Pac. 641; Ohlson v. Power Co., 105 Kan. 252, 254, 182 Pac. 393; Jones v. Webber, 111 Kan. 650, 652, 207 Pac. 837; Henderson v. Deckert, 160 Kan. 386, 162 P. 2d 88; Newell v. City Ice Co., 140 Kan. 110, 112, 113, 34 P. 2d 558; Anderson v. Thompson, 137 Kan. 754, 22 P. 2d 438; Hurley v. Painter, 182 Kan. 731, 736, 324 P. 2d 142.)
In Anderson v. Thompson, supra, 758, Mr. Justice Rousseau Burch, speaking for the court, said:
“Public policy forbids tbat after the jury has tried the case the court shall, on motion for new trial, proceed to try the jury. A verdict may not be impeached by an inquiry which reaches a juror’s views or the reasons for those views (L. & W. Rly. Co. v. Anderson, 41 Kan. 528, 21 Pac. 588), or which reaches what influenced those views (Matthews v. Langhofer, 110 Kan. 36, *19202 Pac. 634; Jones v. Webber, 111 Kan. 650, 207 Pac. 837; Stone v. City of Pleasanton, 115 Kan. 378, 223 Pac. 312). Besides that, the jury being what it is, jurors will act like human beings in the jury room, and will indulge in bluster and hyperbole and animated irrelevancies. Not only does the law presume a juror respects the obligation of his oath and votes his convictions, but generally he in fact does so; and due allowance must be made for some exuberance in jury-room discussion or the court must keep on granting new trials in important cases until a perfectly spiritless jury can be secured.”
All trial judges and lawyers in this state are aware of the fact that it is difficult to obtain jurors. If jurors may, with propriety, be subjected to harassment after they have rendered their verdict, then the task of selecting jurors will be made still more difficult. Such, I fear, will be the result of the holding of the majority opinion, and I cannot adhere to it. If objections are going to be raised on the ground of misconduct of the jury, they should be raised at the time the jury is polled and, of course, each party may ask for a polling of the jury. Such objections should not be permitted to be raised after the verdict has been rendered and the jury discharged, or there will be no end to litigation where a jury trial is had.
There is another sound reason why, in my opinion, the ruling of the trial court should be affirmed. After carefully considering the record of the trial and the hearing on the motion for a new trial, the trial court was of the opinion that the verdict should be, and it was, approved. Perhaps no rule of law is more firmly established and well settled than the rule that an order by the trial court allowing or denying a motion for a new trial will not be reversed by this court, unless an abuse of sound judicial discretion is clearly apparent. The only question for review is whether such discretion has been abused. (Pulkrabek v. Lampe, supra, 210; McFadden v. McFadden, 179 Kan. 455, 463, 296 P. 2d 1098; Baker v. City of Leoti, 179 Kan. 122, 127, 128, 292 P. 2d 720; Clark v. Southwestern Greyhound Lines, 146 Kan. 115, 69 P. 2d 20; Bateman v. Roller, 168 Kan. 111, 112, 211 P. 2d 440; Simon v. Simon, 69 Kan. 746, 748, 77 Pac. 571; Investment Co. v. Hillyer, 50 Kan. 446, 448, 31 Pac. 1064; Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Jackson, 235 F. 2d 390, 394.)
With respect to the exercise of the mentioned sound judicial discretion, it has been said:
“The discretion of district courts in the matter of granting or refusing new trials is a legal, not a capricious, one. It must be warranted by law and *20guided by established precedent. It may not be exercised simply because the judge might wish the verdict to be otherwise. The applicant therefor must show a legal reason for its exercise. The saying that it takes thirteen to render a verdict has passed to an adage, but can mean nothing more than that, in cases where conflicting evidence raises a substantial and serious doubt in the mind of the trial judge of the correctness of tire conclusion reached by the jury, he may interfere; . . .” [Emphasis supplied.] (Sovereign Camp v. Thiebaud, 65 Kan. 332, 337, 69 Pac. 348; Butler v. Milner, 101 Kan. 264, 268, 166 Pac. 478.)
In the recent case of Reedy v. Reedy, 175 Kan. 438, 440, 264 P. 2d 913, we said:
“Discretion may be defined as the freedom to act according to one’s judgment. fudicial discretion implies the liberty to act as a judge should act, applying the rules and analogies of the law to the facts found after weighing and examining the evidence — to act upon fair judicial consideration, and not arbitrarily. When so acting in a matter committed to the discretion of the court by the law the judgment ought not to be overruled by a reviewing court, for to do so would be to deny the right to exercise the discretion given by the law itself. [Citing cases.]’’ [Emphasis supplied.]
Thus, in order to warrant a reversal in the instant case, it must appear that the trial court abused its discretion. Let us see if that is the case. In ruling upon the motion for a new trial, the trial court prepared a memorandum opinion setting out the contentions of the parties, the evidence presented at the hearing and the applicable rules of law, including that relating to prejudice affecting the verdict. It was stated that the conduct of the juror Noll was “reprehensible and should subject the juror to reprimand, yet the question remains, ‘Was the substantial rights of the defendant prejudiced thereby?’”; and further:
“Most of the other jurors remembered Noll making some statement but their testimony was substantially that they didn’t pay any attention to it. In view of the fact that defendants admit death as a result of electric shock, how could the wrongful action and statements of Noll have influenced the jury in their verdict? . . .
“Since defendant admitted cause of death, it was only necessary, in arriving at their general verdict, for the jury to determine the question of negligence, and a specific finding of negligence to support the general verdict was made . . .
“Therefore, the Court concludes that even though the actions of the juror Noll cannot be condoned, it cannot be said that such resulted in substantial prejudice to defendant’s rights.”
Thus, the court was exercising a sound legal discretion guided by established precedent and was not exercising an arbitrary or capri*21cious one. Under such circumstances, this court should be bound by the result reached by the trial court and the mere fact that some of the members of this court might believe the case was one where, with propriety, a new trial might have been granted does not justify disturbing the conclusion reached by the lower court. (King v. Consolidated Products Co., 159 Kan. 608, 612, 157 P. 2d 541; Pittman Co. v. Hayes, 98 Kan. 273, 278, 157 Pac. 1193; Butler v. Milner, supra, 268.)
We stated in our recent case of Pulkrabek v. Lampe, 179 Kan. 204, 293 P. 2d 998, 54 A. L. R. 2d 732:
“From the record presented it appears that the trial court, which we pause to note was in much better position to pass on the situation than this court, was convinced that the misconduct of the jury was not such that prejudice therefrom resulted against the appellant.” [Emphasis supplied.]
We further said, after approving the rule as laid down in 39 Am. Jur., New Trial § 73, p. 87, that in connection with such rule it may be stated that this court has always held that an order overruling or denying a motion for a new trial will not be reversed unless abuse of discretion by the trial court is apparent. Numerous other decisions of like import appear in our reports, but to cite them would merely burden this opinion. They can be found by referring to West’s Kansas Digest, Appeal & Error, §§ 977-979, inch, and Hatcher’s Kansas Digest (Rev. Ed.), Appeal & Error, §§ 458, 459.
In Newell v. City Ice Co., supra, 113, in speaking of a juror injecting insurance into the case during deliberation, we said:
“Where it is mentioned in the jury room and outside of the evidence without the knowledge or participation of the successful party, it has been held that much liberality is indulged in sustaining the verdict notwithstanding such misconduct.”
An able trial judge, with years of experience on the bench, heard the evidence on the merits of this case and the evidence presented on the motion for a new trial, on which he wrote a lengthy memorandum opinion, narrating the evidence, citing the authorities of this court upon which he relied in overruling the motion; and he was in a much better position than this court to pass on the question. I cannot say, after reading the record, that he abused his discretion in refusing to grant a new trial, and I find no justification therein for reversing this case. It appears to me that the majority of the court have usurped the powers and functions of the trial court after reading only the cold record. Much more could be said, but, *22in the interest of some brevity, under the existing conditions I will refrain. I am of the opinion the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed in toto.
Robb and Fatzer, JJ., concur in the foregoing dissent.