Court Opinion

ID: 9546284
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:26:54.595975+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:13.633262
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
dissenting:
This case should be reversed and remanded for a new trial because of the reversible error committed by the trial court in changing the special verdict form without affording notice to counsel or giving them an opportunity to object and point out why the alteration improperly modified the verdict form. As all trial counsel will recognize, after the trial court has prepared the jury instructions and verdict forms, and given counsel an opportunity to review them and make their objections, the attorneys then present their closing arguments to the jury based upon those jury instructions and verdict forms. Without knowing of the changes made, counsel are prevented from discussing the new material in their arguments.
In this case when the jury originally returned its verdict, it answered question number 1, “Was the irrigation system built by defendant defective due to said defendant’s negligence or poor workmanship,” in the negative. Had the trial court not added the “6” in front of the last question, and not orally told the jury when he was giving the jury instructions that the “6th” question was “the last question” which they needed to answer, the jury might well have ended its deliberations after answering question 1 in the negative, and judgment would have been entered for the appellant. By listing a sixth question on the jury form the trial court turned the special verdict into a hybrid special verdict-general verdict form, which obviously confused the jurors, since their answers to question 1 and question 6 were diametrically opposed.
These changes were made without the knowledge of counsel after the jury conference was over, contrary to I.R.C.P. 51(a)(1), and the error can hardly be said to be harmless. The appellant is entitled to a new trial.