Court Opinion

ID: 9732632
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:28:42.168742+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:30.790307
License: Public Domain

KELLEY, Justice
(dissenting):
The majority in Parts 1 and 2 of its opinion rules that the trial court’s handling of the grant of additional peremptory strikes and the inquiry on voir dire as to liability insurance coverage, although perhaps in error, was within the trial court’s discretion and that it could not be said that this discretion was abused in light of the circumstances existing at the time the rulings were made. Although I disagree with the majority as explained later in this dissent, if those were the only two issues before us, I might not have written further. However, I must respectfully dissent and would remand for retrial of all issues because, in my opinion, the trial court’s jury instructions, coupled with its restriction of cross-examination by the respondent’s attorney of Dr. Mollman, was an abuse of discretion and constituted, by itself, reversible error.
Following a cervical laminectomy surgical procedure on January 5, 1983, respondent Hunt was placed in the neurosurgical intensive care section of the hospital. The following day he was moved to the neuro-surgical section. From the time of his surgery until hospital staff removed him from his bed for the first time on the night of January 7, respondent suffered continued, extensive pain and was heavily medicated with drugs to relieve that pain. During that period of time, his temperature was generally elevated and occasionally his body spasmed violently.
On the night of Friday, January 7, at about 8 p.m., unidentified nurses citing “doctor’s orders” over respondent’s protest, eased respondent out of his bed and into a chair without providing any support for his neck and head. Shortly afterwards the nurses left the room, leaving respondent unattended. Respondent’s head eventually slumped forward until his chin rested on his chest. He was unable to call for help because the “call button” used to summon help was inaccessible to him in the chair. The nurses returned a short time later, at which time they noticed respondent’s head was on his chest. When they pushed it back to an upright position, respondent promptly informed them that he had no feeling in his legs, after which the nurses lifted him back into the bed.
None of the hospital personnel who cared for respondent between mid-Friday afternoon and mid-Saturday afternoon remembers anything about post-operative events preceding the discovery that respondent was indeed quadriplegic. The only health care professional with any recollection of events occurring after the nurses placed Hunt in the chair was a neurosurgical resident, Dr. Dennis Mollman, who drew blood from respondent’s foot at about 11 p.m. on January 7. At a pre-trial deposition, Dr. Mollman testified that each time he stuck Hunt’s foot with the needle, the patient withdrew his foot. Late in the trial, and only shortly before submission of the case to the jury, Dr. Mollman from the witness stand described the movement as including an extension of the foot and a side-to-side movement.
As the trial ultimately unfolded, the defense contended that Pat Hunt’s quadriplegia resulted from something other than his being left unattended in the chair by hospital personnel on January 7. Dr. Mollman’s trial testimony was critical to the establishment of that defense because it tended to show that when he drew blood from Hunt’s foot, he observed movements of the left leg inconsistent with paralysis at that time — a considerable time after Hunt had been returned from the chair to his bed.
At his pre-trial deposition, Dr. Mollman only testified that he had to “have a nurse hold (Pat’s) knee down” because “every-time I stuck him, he pulled his foot away.” Five days before Dr. Mollman testified at trial, Dr. Theodore Kurze testified that Hunt’s withdrawal of his foot, as was described by Dr. Mollman in his deposition, *37was a reflex action totally consistent with paralysis. Respondent Hunt contends that the variance in Dr. Mollman’s testimony is crucial to his case. Nonetheless, respondent’s attorney’s attempt to impeach the doctor by cross-examination at trial respecting that difference was essentially denied by the trial judge. In my opinion, the trial court erred when it intervened in respondent’s attempt to impeach Dr. Mollman by cross-examination. The ostensible differences in Dr. Mollman’s deposition and trial testimony were a proper area for. impeachment, and, from the standpoint of the respondent, were critical because Dr. Moll-man’s trial testimony describing Hunt’s reaction to the pricking forms the basis for the defense, and, if believed, destroys the plaintiff’s theory which was based upon the testimony Dr. Mollman gave in his deposition some five years earlier. Respondent’s contention that Mollman’s trial testimony was crucial is augmented by the fact he was the only health care provider who attended to respondent that night who has any recollection of his actions during the crucial time period when Pat Hunt first complained of his paralysis. At his deposition, in response to the question, “Was the knee spasming?” Dr. Mollman answered by describing the “withdrawal motion,” but made no reference to any other movement such as the “side-to-side” movement he described at the trial. The failure of a witness to describe all material facts is grounds for impeachment of the witness. 3A J. Wigmore, Evidence § 1042 at 1056 (Chadbourn rev. 1970); E. Cleary, McCormick on Evidence § 34 at 74-75 (3rd ed. 1984); see also Erickson v. Erickson & Co., 212 Minn. 119, 125, 2 N.W.2d 824, 827 (1942) (plaintiff omitted facts in statement to insurance adjuster which were included in his testimony at trial). Therefore, I conclude it was reversible error to not permit respondent’s counsel to continue his cross-examination along this line for the purposes of showing any disparity which existed and the significance of that disparity.
But, even if one concludes that the trial court’s foreclosure of the cross-examination of Dr. Mollman was itself not reversible error, the trial court’s amplification of the error, by preventing respondent from having his own expert explain any differences between the deposition and the trial testimony of Dr. Mollman, combined with its instruction to the jury that “you are instructed that there is no evidence Dr. Mollman’s testimony at trial was changed from the testimony he gave at the time of the deposition,” compounded the error and deprived the jury of its proper function of resolving credibility issues. The jury is the exclusive judge of the credibility of the evidence. State v. Larson, 281 N.W.2d 481, 487 (Minn.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 973, 100 S.Ct. 467, 62 L.Ed.2d 388 (1979); Romanik v. Toro Co., 277 N.W.2d 515, 518 (Minn.1979); see also Young v. Wlazik, 262 N.W.2d 300, 310 (Minn.1977), overruled on other grounds, Perkins v. Nat’l R.R. Passenger Corp., 289 N.W.2d 462, 466 n. 3, 468 (Minn.1979).1 Reversal should ensue when a trial judge oversteps the bounds by interpreting the evidence in such a manner as to remove factual issues, such as witness credibility, from the jury’s consideration. See Siats v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 251 Minn. 412, 418, 88 N.W.2d 199, 204 (1958). The instruction given by the trial court here, in my view, cannot be passed off as harmless error because it was so prejudicial to the respondent. See, e.g., McCay v. Mitchell, 62 Tenn.App. 424, 447-48, 463 S.W.2d 710, 721 (1970) (malpractice case where trial court, in essence, “weighed” the testimony and gave a similar instruction relative thereto). See also State v. Blasus, 445 N.W.2d 535, 545 (Minn.1989) (Kelley, J., dissenting).2
*38Therefore, although I do not completely accept the “cumulative effect of the discretionary abuses” arguments advanced by the court of appeals, I would affirm its decision and remand for a new trial on all issues including (a) a re-examination of whether the defendants are entitled to additional peremptory jury strikes under Minn.Stat. § 546.10 (1988) in the light of the posture the parties have in the case as of the time of the retrial, and, as well, (b) a reconsideration of the limitation imposed at trial on an insurance coverage inquiry by respondent’s counsel during voir dire.
(a) Peremptory Jury Strikes
Minn.Stat. § 546.10 (1988), insofar as applicable, reads:
Each party shall be entitled to two peremptory challenges, which shall be made alternately beginning with the defendant. The parties to the action shall be deemed two, all plaintiffs being one party, and all defendants being the other party, except, in case two or more defendants have adverse interests, the court, if satisfied that the due protection of their interests so requires, may allow the defendant or defendants on each side of the adverse interests not to exceed two peremptory challenges.
Id. Thus, the plain wording of the statute gives the trial court no discretion to award defendants additional peremptory challenges unless it first finds that the defendants have “adverse interests.” Clearly, neither judge who considered the issue made any specific finding that there were “adverse interests” among the defendants. However, the first judge who granted the request for additional peremptory strikes must have implicitly concluded that on the state of the record as it then existed, approximately one year before trial and before trial preparation had been completed, there did exist “adverse interests” between the defendant doctors and the hospital. The trial court, to whom respondent’s motion to reconsider the matter was addressed a year later, refused to reconsider notwithstanding the passage of time, that trial preparation was now complete, and that no cross-claims between defendants had been filed. Therefore, I would hold that on retrial the trial court should re-examine the prior rulings, and rule on the issue in light of the pleadings and discovery as they exist at the time of the retrial, and unless a finding of “adverse interests” between defendants is made, the trial court should deny the request for additional peremptory strikes.. Absent a finding of diversity, the trial court had no discretion.
(b) At the trial, the judge refused to question, and prohibited Hunt from questioning, prospective jurors as to whether they, or any of their relatives, were employed by or had any interest in the defendants’ malpractice insurance companies because he felt the mention of insurance would be too prejudicial.
Rule 31 of the Code of Rules for the District Courts of Minnesota covers the issue as follows:
In the examination of the jurors by counsel as to their qualifications, the jurors may be asked collectively whether any of them have any interest as policyholders, stockholders, officers, agents or otherwise in the insurance company or companies interested, [i.e. companies not parties, but interested in the defense or outcome of the action,] but such question shall not be repeated to each individual juror. If none of the jurors indicate any such interest in the company or companies involved, then no further inquiry shall be permitted with reference thereto.
If any of the jurors manifest an interest in any of the companies involved, then counsel may further inquire of such juror or jurors as to his or their interest in such company, including any relationship or connection with the local agent of such interested company, to determine whether such interests or relationship disqualifies such juror.
Rule 31, Code of Rules for the District Courts of Minnesota (1990).
*39For almost 90 years, beginning with Spoonick v. Backus-Brooks Co., 89 Minn. 354, 358-59, 94 N.W. 1079, 1081 (1903), up to the present day, McCarthy Well Co. v. St. Peter Creamery, Inc., 389 N.W.2d 514, 519 (Minn.App.1986), rev’d. in part, 410 N.W.2d 312 (Minn.1987), we have held that a plaintiffs lawyer has the right in a tort case to explore the existence of any relationship between a defendant and his or her liability insurer. See Antletz v. Smith, 97 Minn. 217, 220-21, 106 N.W. 517, 518 (1906); Viou v. Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Co., 99 Minn. 97, 105-06, 108 N.W. 891, 895 (1906). In general it can be stated that Rule 31 codifies the right recognized by the cases cited. The rule permits the jurors to be asked collectively about any relationship with the insurer, and generally there exists no error when the panel as a group has been questioned on the issue on voir dire either by the judge or by counsel. See Carpenter, Discussion of Defendant’s Insurance Coverage During Voir Dire: An Analysis of the Current Practice and its Origins, 14 Wm. Mitchell L.Rev. 45, 48-63 (1988). Here, the trial judge did not permit any inquiry into the matter. Failure to permit any inquiry is an error as a matter of law, and it cannot be dismissed as harmless when no inquiry at all was permitted. See, e.g., Alholm v. Wilt, 394 N.W.2d 488, 494 (Minn.1986) (analysis of why similar failure to follow procedural rules relating to peremptory challenge of alternate juror was not harmless error because of literal impossibility to demonstrate prejudice). The discretion Rule 31 grants to the trial court is not whether or not to deny any inquiry into the insurance coverage matters, but only relates to how the questions may be proposed and by whom. Therefore, on retrial the trial court should review the respondent’s request to question the jurors relative to connections with the defendants’ liability insurers, but is, of course, free to exercise his or her discretion as to how and by whom the inquiry is made.3
For all of the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent and would affirm the court of appeals and remand to the trial court for retrial on all issues.

. The author of this dissent was the trial judge whose instructions to the jury, in the eyes of this court, seemingly adopted one interpretation of a crucial fact over a competing interpretation. This court in Wlazik ruled that by so doing, the trial judge provided the "main grounds for reversal.” Wlazik, 262 N.W.2d at 310.

. I there noted:
Since the earliest days of statehood, this court has consistently held in both criminal and civil cases that bias, state of mind, and inclinations of witnesses, upon whose testimony in part the issue is to be determined, are not collateral or immaterial matters; that cross-examination on the issue of bias or interest is *38a matter of right; and that its denial or undue circumscription is prejudicial error.
Blasus, 445 N.W.2d at 545 (Kelley, J., dissenting).

. We are not unaware of a school of thought among lawyers that suggests the real purpose of permitting' this type of inquiry on voir dire is not so much to identify a juror's possible relationship to a particular named company or its employees or agents, as to generally inform jurors that indeed if the defendant or defendants are held liable, there exist funds to pay the damages awarded. But even should that be true, the fact remains that our cases and Rule 31 gives the right of inquiry as to specific named companies, and at the trial of this case that was completely denied. While it might be argued that the error was harmless and, therefore, insufficient by itself to justify a new trial, under the circumstances of this case upon retrial, plaintiffs counsel should be afforded the right to make some inquiry into the issues.