Court Opinion

ID: 9463385
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:04:46.553588+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:03.894826
License: Public Domain

WIDENER, Circuit Judge
(concurring and dissenting):
I concur with that portion of the court’s opinion affirming the district court’s denial of General Motors’ motion for directed verdict; however, I respectfully dissent from that portion which reverses because of improper argument to the jury.
*1087During closing argument, Leathers’ attorney stated:
“I don’t know, again, how to put a number on that. It’s the loss of the use of your legs, to some extent, the loss of doing sports or hobbies which are athletic, the general limitation in your enjoyment of life, pain, further medical treatment over a period of 26.9 years. 26.9 years are a lot of years, somewhere close to 9,000 days.
“I don’t know how much you — how you put a dollar value on it, but how much dollars would it be worth to you, $30 a day, $20, $300 a month? The only way he can be compensated is with money. He can’t be compensated with a new leg or having his leg put back in good condition, and I ask you to consider that.”
The attorney for the defendant did not object when the argument was made, but approached the bench and objected at the close of the argument.
The district court offered to admonish the jury to disregard the comment as improper argument, but pointed out that such an instruction could “make more of it than has already been made.” General Motors rejected the court’s offer to admonish, but rather moved for a mistrial, which motion was denied.
At the beginning of General Motors’ closing argument, its attorney stated:
“I am asking — or all we are asking on both sides is that you bring to this the same type consideration that you would bring — you would want to have people bring to your trial.” (Italics added.)
While the argument by Leathers’ counsel is at least arguably a use of the word “you” in an impersonal sense, which of course is not error, General Motors’ argument is clearly an improper use of the word. I am of opinion that, regardless of the propriety of the initial remark made by Leathers’ attorney, General Motors cannot claim to have been prejudiced by Leathers’ allegedly improper statement since its attorney reaffirmed Leathers’ argument to the jury by stating “we are asking on both sides” that the same rule be invoked, and General Motors use of the word “you was clearly not an impersonal one.
In my opinion, General Motors has waived any objection to Leathers’ argument for three separate reasons. First, as previously discussed, it adopted the argument; second, it made no contemporaneous objection; third, it refused the offer of the court to admonish the jury.
No case has been found in Virginia which has reversed for such argument. See, e. g., Norfolk & Western R. R. Co. v. Keatley, 211 Va. 507, 178 S.E.2d 516 (1971); State Farm Ins. Co. v. Futrell, 209 Va. 266, 163 S.E.2d 181 (1968); Phillips v. Fulghum, 203 Va. 543, 125 S.E.2d 835 (1962); Cape Charles Flying Service v. Nottingham, 187 Va. 444, 47 S.E.2d 540 (1948); Seymour v. Richardson, 194 Va. 709, 75 S.E.2d 77 (1953); Crosswhite v. Barnes, 139 Va. 471, 124 S.E.2d 242 (1924); and Lorillard Co. v. Clay, 127 Va. 734, 104 S.E. 384 (1920) (none of which reversed for like argument.)
Since the judge offered to instruct the jury to correct the argument, we must consider that as having been done. 1 find only one federal case which has reversed when such instructions were given. Klotz v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 267 F.2d 53 (7th Cir.) cert. denied 361 U.S. 877, 80 S.Ct. 141, 4 L.Ed.2d 114 (1959). In Klotz, the plaintiff was awarded substantial damages for the loss of his left eye. Plaintiff’s attorney, in closing argument, at least twice entreated the jurors to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and on several occasions challenged the defendant’s attorney to say how much money he would take for one of his eyes. Plaintiff’s attorney also referred to the price of an eye in a buy-sell arrangement, indicating that defendant had bought plaintiff’s eye and the jury was to determine the selling price. At the close of the argument, plaintiff’s attorney again invoked the golden rule. Some of these remarks were objected to and the trial court instructed the jury to disregard them. In reversing, the Seventh Circuit stated, “[t]he nature of the remarks, their number and repetition, when considered in connection with the record as a whole, evi*1088dences a deliberate appeal to the jury to substitute sympathy for judgment . . 267 F.2d 55.
As previously noted, the remark of Leathers’ counsel in closing argument is susceptible of the interpretation that it was a proper use of the word “you” in an impersonal sense. That aside, the remark was made only once and it does not seem to me to be “a deliberate appeal to the jury to substitute sympathy for judgment.” In my opinion the argument in the setting of this case was not reversible error. Accord, e. g., Shroyer v. Kaufmann, 426 F.2d 1032 (7th Cir. 1970); Har-pen Truck Lines, Inc. v. Mills, 378 F.2d 705 (5th Cir. 1967); Roy v. Employers Mutual Casualty Co., 368 F.2d 902 (5th Cir. 1966).