Carter v. MacMillan Oil Co., Inc., 83-992
| Decision Date | 19 September 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-992,83-992 |
| Citation | 355 N.W.2d 52 |
| Parties | Jeffrey Clark CARTER, Appellant, v. MacMILLAN OIL COMPANY, INC., Appellee. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
John R. Hearn, Des Moines, for appellant.
Michael F. Lacey, Jr., of Patterson, Lorentzen, Duffield, Timmons, Irish, Becker & Ordway, Des Moines, for appellee.
Considered by REYNOLDSON, C.J., and McCORMICK, McGIVERIN, CARTER, and WOLLE, JJ.
Plaintiff appeals from an order sustaining a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict following a jury verdict awarding him $10,500 in actual damages and $5000 in punitive damages in a malicious prosecution action. The trial court's ruling granting that motion was based on its conclusion that its instructions to the jury permitted recovery on an improper legal theory. In addition, the trial court sustained an alternative motion for new trial on the same ground. We hold that an incorrect legal theory was submitted to the jury, but that the proper remedy is a new trial rather than a judgment for defendant.
The plaintiff, Jeffrey Carter, was accused by defendant's employees of putting gasoline in his automobile at defendant's service station and driving away without paying. After station employees reported the alleged theft, plaintiff was arrested and charged with fifth-degree theft. At his trial, he testified that he had paid an attendant for the gasoline. He was later acquitted of the charge.
Plaintiff then filed the present action against defendant seeking recovery on three different theories: (1) abuse of process; (2) malicious prosecution; and (3) negligence in the instigation of the prosecution. The defendant did not deny that it had instigated the unsuccessful criminal prosecution. Following the presentation of evidence, the court submitted the case to the jury under instructions which permitted recovery on any one of the three legal theories upon which plaintiff relied. In addition, it gave the jury the substance of Iowa Bar Association uniform jury instruction 3.21 (civil) with respect to an award of punitive damages. The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff for actual damages of $10,500 and punitive damages of $5000. In response to a special interrogatory, the jury indicated that it had allowed recovery on a theory of negligence in the instigation of the prosecution.
Following the jury's verdict, the trial court granted defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict under Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 243(b) on the ground that it had erred in instructing the jury that it could allow recovery on a theory of negligence in the instigation of the prosecution. Acting in conformance with Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 248(a), see Loudon v. Hill, 286 N.W.2d 189 (Iowa 1979), the trial court also sustained defendant's alternative motion for new trial on the same ground.
On appeal, plaintiff does not disagree with the trial court's conclusion that permitting recovery on a theory of negligence in the instigation of a prosecution is an improper enlargement upon the right of recovery for malicious prosecution. The elements for recovery on that theory are set forth in Brody v. Ruby, 267 N.W.2d 902, 904-05 (Iowa 1978). We agree with the trial court that to permit recovery on a theory of simple negligence in the instigation of a prosecution would be an unwarranted expansion of a plaintiff's right to recover on this type of tort claim.
Instead of challenging the legal conclusions upon which the trial court's ruling was made, the plaintiff argues that the evidence permitted recovery under a theory of malicious prosecution and that, in combination, the jury's verdict on the negligence theory coupled with its award of punitive damages serves to confirm a jury finding that all elements of a malicious prosecution claim had been established.
We do not believe that we may interpolate the jury's findings in the manner suggested by plaintiff. Assuming that the evidence would sustain a claim for malicious prosecution, the jury did not return a verdict on that theory. Theories of recovery upon which the jury returned no finding or theories which were never submitted to the jury may not be utilized by the court in post-trial motions to resurrect a verdict based on improper grounds. See, e.g., Goetzman v. Wichern, 327 N.W.2d 742, 747 (Iowa 1982).
The trial court's ruling granting the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and ordering the entry of judgment for defendant was based upon the theory that the defendant was entitled to a directed verdict on the negligent instigation claim and that the jury had resolved the abuse of process and malicious prosecution claims adversely to plaintiff. We agree with the former conclusion but not with the latter.
The latter conclusion was based on the jury's answers to a special interrogatory which indicated that recovery had only been permitted on a theory of negligence. Considering the form of that interrogatory, we cannot conclude that the jury, in indicating that recovery was allowed under one of the three legal theories submitted, was also expressing its view that recovery was not proper under the other two. The jury may have viewed the interrogatory as only requiring them to consider the case until they found a right of recovery under one of the three theories. For this reason, and because, in a subsequent part of this opinion, we find that the trial court's instructions on malice placed an improper burden on the plaintiff with respect to his malicious prosecution theory, we conclude that the proper remedy is a grant of a new trial on the issues of malicious prosecution and abuse of process rather than a judgment for defendant.
Because the action must be retried, we consider additional issues raised in the appeal which relate to matters likely to arise again upon another trial.
A. Rulings on Evidence. Plaintiff contends that the trial court erred in several evidentiary rulings. He asserts that the trial court erred in sustaining relevancy objections to evidence that defendant had threatened to sue him for abuse of process if he commenced this action, that such a suit would have had no basis in law, that the employee of the defendant who accused him of theft was discharged for dishonesty, and that defendant had failed to recommend criminal prosecution in other instances where patrons of the same service station had left without paying. We find no merit in any of these claims.
Each of these issues involves a question of relevancy upon which the trial court has a wide discretion in the matter of evidentiary rulings. Evidence is relevant if it renders the existence of a fact more probable or less probable with it than without it. Briner v. Hyslop, 337 N.W.2d 858, 869 (Iowa 1983); Carson v. Mulnix, 263 N.W.2d 701, 706 (Iowa 1978). Relevancy and materiality are matters of trial court discretion. Shinrone, Inc. v. Tasco, Inc., 283 N.W.2d 280, 288 (Iowa 1979). A trial court has discretion to exclude relevant evidence when its...
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