Court Opinion

ID: 9673807
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:18:44.65525+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:24.229225
License: Public Domain

WOLLMAN, Justice
(concurring specially).
Although I agree that the judgment should be affirmed, I do question whether the simple “No” given by the trial court in response to the jury’s question about liability insurance was the best answer that could have been given. Had counsel been notified and given an opportunity to express their views concerning the proper answer to be given to this question, I have no doubt that a more complete answer would have been proposed by *115them and probably given by the court. At the very least, the answer should have instructed the jury that the question of liability insurance was not an issue in the case and that they should not consider the matter of insurance in determining the questions of liability and the amount of damages.
The record reveals that the jury retired to deliberate at 3:55 p.m. on May 16, 1974, and that at 4:15 p.m. they submitted the question concerning the amount of insurance. According to appellant’s brief, counsel for appellant learned of the question and the answer given by the trial court approximately an hour and a half after the question had been submitted and answered. At 9:50 p.m., the jury requested clarification of the special interrogatories, at which time the court called the jury back into the box and gave them further instructions in the presence of counsel. I would hold that because counsel for appellant did not make a request that the jury be given an instruction that they were not to consider the question of insurance in deliberating upon the questions of liability and damages at a time when it would have been possible for the court to have given such a supplementary instruction, counsel should be held to have waived the right to notice and presence provided by SDCL 15-6-51(a). Cf. Wittmeier v. Post, 78 S.D. 520, 105 N.W.2d 65.
I am authorized to state that Justice COLER joins in this special concurrence.