Court Opinion

ID: 9688359
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 17:44:38.682489+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:37.842323
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
The trial court concluded that any error relating to Scheels' negligence was harmless because the jury, in fact, found that Scheels was negligent. I agree and would affirm the judgment.
The majority holds that the failure to instruct on negligent entrustment is reversible error because such an instruction “could have had a direct bearing on the jury’s proximate cause determination, because the foreseeable misuse of the chattel by the person to whom it has been negligently entrusted cannot be a superseding intervening cause which extinguishes the supplier’s liability.” [Page 4 majority opinion.] The majority concludes that the jury should have been given not only the requested negligent entrustment instruction but on remand “should be further instructed that if there is a negligent entrustment by the defendant Scheels Hardware and Sports Shop, Inc., a foreseeable misuse of the chattel by the person to whom it is entrusted cannot be a superseding cause which will extinguish the defendant’s liability for harm caused by the misuse.”
The majority appears to base its finding of reversible error not merely on the failure to give the requested instruction on negligent entrustment, but on a combination of that failure along with the omission of an instruction that foreseeable misuse of a chattel by the person to whom it has been negligently entrusted cannot be a superseding intervening cause which extinguishes the supplier’s liability.
The plaintiffs, however, did not request the latter instruction on superseding cause, nor object to its omission. Plaintiffs therefore waived any error arising from the omission of this superseding cause instruction. Rule 51, NDRCivP; State v. Janda, 397 N.W.2d 59 (N.D.1986); Vasichek v. Thorsen, 271 N.W.2d 555 (N.D.1978). Nonetheless, the majority reverses.
The majority, therefore, must be implicitly applying an obvious error analysis. The obvious error doctrine is an exception to the rule that there must be an objection or a request for an instruction in order to preserve the issue for appellate review. See State v. Janda, supra. The obvious error exception permits an appellate court to correct only “particularly egregious errors” affecting the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 105 S.Ct. 1038, 84 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985); State v. Janda, supra; State v. Miller, 388 N.W.2d 522 (N.D.1986). It is to be used sparingly *16and only when a miscarriage of justice would otherwise result. Young, 470 U.S. at 17, 105 S.Ct. at 1047. The exception is no less rarely applied to civil cases. See Aspen Highlands Skiing Corp. v. Aspen Skiing Co., 738 F.2d 1509, 1516 (10 Cir.1984) (use limited to exceptional cases).
Generally, in raising obvious error, the party who failed to object below has the burden on appeal to show that the error almost surely affected the outcome of the case. Lusby v. T.G. and Y. Stores, Inc., 796 F.2d 1307, 1312 n. 4 (10 Cir.1986). To determine whether obvious error applies in a case, we must review the instruction error in the context of the entire record. Young, 105 S.Ct. at 1047.
This case is extraordinary in that not only did plaintiffs fail to request the superseding cause instruction below, or object to its omission, they did not raise, brief, or argue on appeal that the failure to so instruct constituted obvious error. While this court may notice errors affecting substantial rights even though they were not brought to its attention, see Rule 52, NDRCrimP and Explanatory Note [“This Rule applies to both the trial courts and the appellate courts.”], we should do so only if it is clear that there has been a miscarriage of justice.
I do not believe that the failure to instruct on superseding cause is so fundamental that it created a miscarriage of justice. Let us assume the instruction had been requested and given. On the one hand, the jury may have concluded that William’s giving his empty gun to Steven with Steven thereafter surreptitiously placing a bullet in the gun, and returning it to William, who then fired the gun, was not a “foreseeable misuse of the chattel by the person to whom it is entrusted” and therefore not subject to the proscription against superseding cause. On the other hand, if the jury decided that the use by William, the entrustee, was indeed misuse and misuse that was foreseeable, then, following the instruction, the jury would have simply reallocated to Scheels the negligence it attributed to William, the entrustee. Consequently, the 50-50 allocation would remain the same — only the responsible parties would have changed. Because I believe that the jury verdict would not have changed even had the superseding cause instruction been given along with the negligent entrustment instruction, I see no miscarriage of justice in need of remedy. The error is not fundamental.
The trial took three weeks. The record is voluminous. Throughout, the plaintiffs’ position was that Scheels was negligent because it violated federal and state law, and because it sold a gun to a child. The entire thrust of plaintiffs’ trial strategy was to highlight the negligence of Scheels. The trial court instructed on negligence and also instructed on the violation of statute being evidence of negligence. In finding Scheels negligent, the jury was well apprised of the principles of negligence and I cannot see how an instruction on negligent entrustment would have changed the jury’s mind either about the negligence of Scheels or its proximate causation of plaintiffs’ damages.
I agree with the majority that the requested negligent entrustment instruction did not apply to defendant Kathryn Boyer. I therefore concur in the affirmance of the judgment as to Kathryn. As to the reversal and remand for a new trial against Scheels, I dissent. I would affirm the judgment in all respects.