Fritz v. Wright

1 This is an appeal from the judgment entered on a jury verdict awarding Appellees1 $51,300 in an action for personal injury. Appellants raise four issues for our review: (1) whether the evidence of negligence was sufficient to submit the matter to the jury; (2) whether improperly admitted evidence influenced the verdict; (3) whether the trial court improperly left out an applicable jury charge; and (4) whether the verdict was improperly recorded where only nine jurors agreed with it. 2 We begin by addressing the fourth issue, as we find it to be dispositive. The jury returned a verdict consisting of responses to seven interrogatories. At least ten of the twelve jurors agreed on the answer to each interrogatory, but not the same ten on every one. All twelve jurors agreed Appellants were negligent and that Appellants' negligence was a substantial factor in bringing about Appellee's harm. All twelve also found Appellee was contributorily negligent. On the question of whether Appellee's contributory negligence was a substantial factor in bringing about his harm, only ten agreed it was not. Concerning damages, ten jurors agreed Appellee's damages were $51,300 and twelve agreed on damages for Appellee's wife. The problem is that where only ten jurors agreed, the identities of the two dissenters were not consistent. The chart below demonstrates the problem: