Collins v. Ex-Cell-O Corp.

• Decision Date: 28 February 1986
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 83-4018-Y.
• Citation: 629 F. Supp. 540
• Parties: James J. COLLINS and Mary T. Collins, Plaintiffs, v. EX-CELL-O CORP., and Ex-Cell-O Materials and Handling Co., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

629 F. Supp. 540

James J. COLLINS and Mary T. Collins, Plaintiffs, v. EX-CELL-O CORP., and Ex-Cell-O Materials and Handling Co., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 83-4018-Y.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

February 28, 1986.

Robert S. Potters, Nix & Potters, Boston, Mass., for James J. and Mary T. Collins.

William Dailey, Sloane & Walsh, Robert Gaynor, Boston, Mass., for Ex-Cell-O Corp. Co.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON THE MOTION OF THE PLAINTIFFS FOR A NEW TRIAL

YOUNG, District Judge.

In West v. Sears Roebuck & Co., 780 F.2d 169, 170 (1st Cir.1986), Judge Wyzanski, speaking for the court, has this to say about the jury charge of one of our colleagues, a former justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court:

He gave what may best be characterized as the customary Massachusetts trial judge's ambulatory charge rambling over the broad areas of duty, standard of care, breach, causation, and damages— the unfortunately familiar set of passible generalizations not likely to lead to an appellate reversal.

With respect, while Judge Wyzanski's dictum has much merit, it tells but part of the story. The Massachusetts Superior Court has a proud tradition of actually teaching jurors the applicable law prior to their deliberations.¹ Surely, jury charges are more than a mere recitation of succinct though possibly abstruse legal principles. While such a dry recital will also pass appellate muster, it is sometimes little better than talking to the jury in Swahili. Indeed, in complex civil rights actions, for example, there may be an express duty to elaborate the meaning of controlling legal standards in terms of the particular facts of the case. Aubin v. Fudala, 782 F.2d 280, 283 (1st Cir.1983); Choy v. Bouchelle, 436 F.2d 319, 325 (3rd Cir.1970); Lessig v. Tidewater Oil Co., 327 F.2d 459, 466 n. 13 (9th Cir.1964); United States v. 145.31 Acres of Land, 54 F.R.D. 359, 361 (M.D.Pa. 1972). See Kibbe v. City of Springfield, 777 F.2d 801, 810 (1st Cir.1985) where the court called for more "detailed" instructions in a civil rights action.

The risks of a long, illustrative charge are, however, fairly obvious. The jury may become bored and allow their minds to wander. See generally A. Austin, Complex Litigation Confronts the Jury System: A Case Study, 55 et seq. (Univ.Pub. 1984). Illustrations, while they may bring legal principles to life for jurors, may also convey nuances at variance either with the issues presented by the case or with the principle being illustrated. It does no good if the illuminating touches in a jury charge fail to throw specific principles into bold relief and instead, blur the whole. The trial judge is constantly required to be comprehensively brief, perhaps the most daunting oxymoron in the law. The judge must be understood by lay jurors while delineating complex legal norms with scrupulous accuracy. It is the most challenging law teaching of our time.²

This said, I must ruefully admit that my charge in the present case is an apt example of Judge Wyzanski's comment in West. For that reason, the plaintiffs concentrate their main attack on the charge in seeking to overturn a jury verdict for the defendants and obtain a new trial. After careful reflection, I have determined that the charge was adequate and the motion for a new trial ought be denied.

First, the plaintiffs claim that in discussing the breach of warranty claim, my reference to "how feasible, having in mind when the machine was made and what conditions existed then, how feasible, that is, how could you have done it in sic any safer alternative?",³ mis-stated the law of Massachusetts as declared in Hayes v. Ariens, 391 Mass. 407, 413, 462 N.E.2d 273 (1984) where the Supreme Judicial Court declared, "The state of the art is irrelevant" to a breach of warranty claim.

There was no error. The court carefully distinguished the negligence assessment (what the reasonable manufacturer should have known and done "at the time the item was manufactured and sold") from the warranty assessment (i.e. whether the jury, with the benefit of hindsight, considered the item reasonably safe for its intended purpose). In this context, the reference to what was "feasible" was correct. I fully agree with the reasoning of Judge Zobel in In re Massachusetts Asbestos Cases (Pretrial order of February 26, 1985 at 5-9) that the dictum in Hayes — for that is what it is — announces no changes in the Massachusetts law that the feasibility of alternative and possibly safer designs is a relevant inquiry in the warranty context. See Back v. Wickes Corp., 375 Mass. 633, 642, 378 N.E.2d 964 (1978).

Second, while it is true that the negligence of Hood, the plaintiff James Collins' employer, would not serve to affect the defendants' liability in any way unless Hood alone was the cause of the injury, Correia v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 388 Mass. 342, 352, 446 N.E.2d 1033 (1983), the charge adequately expressed that concept and those of proximate and superseding cause. The question on this motion for a new trial is whether there is a reasonable risk of a miscarriage of justice, "not whether an instruction was faultless in every respect, but whether the jury, considering the instruction as a whole, was misled." Aubin v. Fudala, supra at 284, quoting Mid-Texas Communications Systems, Inc. v. American Telephone and Telegraph Co., 615 F.2d 1372, 1390 n. 15 (5th Cir. 1980), cert. denied sub nom. Woodlands Telecomunications Corp. v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 449 U.S. 912, 101 S.Ct. 286, 66 L.Ed.2d 140 (1980). I am satisfied that the jury was not here misled.

Nor is my single inadvertent reference to "Hood" when I meant "Collins" grounds for a new trial. In context, I am satisfied the jury understood the meaning to refer to the plaintiff James Collins as intended. "When instructions, taken together, properly express the law applicable to the case, there is no error even though an isolated clause may be inaccurate, ambiguous, incomplete or otherwise subject to criticism." Aubin v. Fudala, supra at 284, quoting Johnson v. Bryant, 671 F.2d 1276, 1280 (11th Cir.1982).

For these reasons, the motion for a new trial ought be, and hereby is, DENIED.

1 Foremost among the exponents of the full scale, illustrative, meticulously crafted jury charge in Massachusetts is the Honorable George Ponte. It would be hard to overstate his influence on Massachusetts Superior Court jury charges. After all, in the 127 year history of that court, more lawyers who have associated in legal practice with George Ponte have been called to the bench than from any other single source, including the major Boston law firms. Moreover, his copious, constantly updated trial notebooks are the primary foundation of the Superior...