Court Opinion

ID: 9695455
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:20:15.403225+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:12.754513
License: Public Domain

Larson, J.
— I respectfully dissent. Although the. majority in Division III find references to plaintiff’s past difficulties with drinking improper, they do not believe the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to declare a mistrial, even though such a motion was promptly made at the proper time. I cannot agree. This was no innocent slip of the interrogator. It was a deliberate attempt to connect plaintiff’s liquor problem with the fall upon an icy stairway and the resulting injury. In a former appeal a warning was given not to inject the subject in this lawsuit. Christianson v. Kramer, 255 Iowa 239, 250, 122 N.W.2d 283.
Counsel was well aware of the danger when the objectionable question was asked, and must have known he could not connect plaintiff’s nervous disorder to his past use of alcohol. Apparently the trial court was taken by surprise and admitted an answer to the question. When it appeared the connection could not be made, the court did not directly admonish the jury upon the impropriety but attempted to instruct on that evidence at the time the case was given to it. The cure was not effective or adequate.
There was also other evidence of drinking received, and it is hard to believe all this did not unfavorably influence the jury. *985The court should have declared a mistrial, and I would hold it abused its discretion in not doing so. The damage was done when the first reference was made. The members of the jury could not erase the unfair impression made on their minds. Added reference to drinking increased the improper image of plaintiff and seriously prejudiced his rights. The verdict would no longer be free from corruptive matter.
For these prejudicial errors I would grant plaintiff a new trial. Without the references to liquor, the probabilities of a different result appear great to me.
Hays, J., joins in this dissent.