Cyr v. Michaud

• Decision Date: 11 January 1983
• Citation: 454 A.2d 1376
• Court: Maine Supreme Court
• Parties: Mary Ann CYR v. Bernard MICHAUD v. LOCKWOOD GRADERS, INC.

Page 1376

454 A.2d 1376

Mary Ann CYR v. Bernard MICHAUD v. LOCKWOOD GRADERS, INC.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued Nov. 16, 1982.

Decided Jan. 11, 1983.

Harding Law Offices, Alan F. Harding (orally), Floyd L. Harding, Presque Isle, for plaintiff.

Stevens, Engels & Bishop, Frank H. Bishop, Sr. (orally), Presque Isle, for Bernard Michaud.

Solman, Page & Hunter, P.A., Richard Solman (orally), Caribou, for Lockwood Graders.

Before McKUSICK, C.J., and GODFREY, NICHOLS, ROBERTS, CARTER and WATHEN, JJ.

CARTER, Justice.

Following a jury trial on a claim for damages resulting from an accident which occurred when Mary Ann Cyr fell while descending from a potato harvester owned by Bernard Michaud and manufactured and sold by Lockwood Graders, Inc. (hereinafter Lockwood), Michaud appeals a judgment entered against him. He objects to (1) the denial of a motion for a directed verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, (2) the denial of a request to poll the jury after discharge, (3) the refusal to admit affidavits of jurors as proof of a basis for correction of a mistake in the recording of a verdict, (4) the dismissal before trial of plaintiff's claims against Lockwood, and (5) the partial dismissal, at the close of all the evidence, of Michaud's claims of indemnification and contribution against Lockwood.

The plaintiff, Mary Ann Cyr, filed a complaint in negligence against the defendant, Bernard Michaud. As a third-party plaintiff, Michaud, filed a third-party complaint seeking indemnification and contribution from Lockwood for any judgment entered against Michaud. The plaintiff subsequently asserted claims including counts of negligence, breach of both express and implied warranties, and strict liability against Lockwood. In a pretrial order, the court dismissed the plaintiff's claims against defendant Lockwood for lack of privity.

At trial, the following facts were presented. The plaintiff, Mary Ann Cyr, was employed by Michaud as a worker on a potato harvester. During the early morning of September 19, 1977, the plaintiff ascended a ladder to her work position on the harvester. The plaintiff's job was to throw potatoes from a conveyor carrying both rocks and potatoes to a conveyor carrying potatoes. At approximately 9:00 a.m., the conveyor at which the plaintiff was working broke down. The defendant, who was driving the potato harvester, stopped the machine.

The defendant had previously instructed his workers that during a breakdown the male harvester workers were to help him repair the conveyor and that the female workers were to remove the potato vines which were stuck in the back of the harvester. Complying with these instructions, two male workers ascended the ladder to reach the broken-down conveyor near the plaintiff. The defendant went under the machine to assist them in repairing the conveyor. Although it was necessary for the plaintiff to descend from the machine in order to clear the back of the harvester, as she had been previously instructed, the two male workers blocked the plaintiff's access to the ladder. Because the plaintiff was then and still is a large person, there was no room for her to pass. The plaintiff therefore descended from her position by stepping onto a conveyor located directly in back of her work area. On several previous occasions, the defendant had requested that the plaintiff jump on this back conveyor to dislodge some rocks. On the day in question, the plaintiff stepped from this rear conveyor to the side elevator. She then walked down the side elevator. When the plaintiff reached the lower end of the side elevator, she stepped with her left leg from the machine to the ground. The machine at this point was two or three feet off the ground. When her left foot reached the ground, she twisted her foot and she fell incurring injury.

At the end of the plaintiff's case, Michaud moved for a directed verdict which was denied. After Michaud had submitted his case, Lockwood moved for a directed verdict on the indemnification and contribution claims, but the court denied the motion. Lockwood renewed its directed verdict at the end of all the evidence. Partially granting the motion, the court directed a verdict in favor of Lockwood on the claims for indemnification and contribution based on breach of warranty and strict liability. The court found that the statute of limitations on those claims accrued on the date of sale of the machine. The court reasoned that because the harvester was bought in 1966 and the suit was commenced in 1979, the statute of limitations for the breach of warranty and strict liability claims had run, thereby barring Michaud's suit against Lockwood. The court, however, denied the requested motion for a directed verdict on Michaud's negligence claim against Lockwood.

After charging the jury, the trial justice explained the verdict form to the jurors. During the explanation, the justice read question five: "[t]o what dollar and cents amounts do you deem it just and equitable having regard to the plaintiff, Mary Ann Cyr's fault, to reduce the total damages." The defendant did not object to this question. After deliberating for several hours, the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff. As requested by question four of the verdict form, the jury determined that the plaintiff's total damages were $100,000.00. Proceeding to question five, the jury awarded the plaintiff $80,000.00.

In chambers after the return of the verdict and the discharge of the jury, the defendant requested the court to poll the jury on the ground that question five was ambiguous. According to the defendant, the jury could have interpreted question five as requesting the amount of the reduction of the damages rather than the amount of the final award. Denying the motion, the court held that the failure to object to interrogatory number five at the appropriate time constituted a waiver of any objection. In addition, the justice concluded that the question was not ambiguous.

Four days after the completion of the trial, another in-chambers conference was held. At that time, the court announced that after the trial an uninvolved attorney asked a juror what the jury had intended to award the plaintiff. According to this attorney, the juror said that the jury had intended to award the plaintiff $20,000.00 rather than $80,000.00. The court stated that apparently the jurors had interpreted question five as requesting the amount of the reduction from the total damages rather than the plaintiff's final award. Based upon this new evidence, the court considered whether to reimpanel the jury. The court held that by failing to object to the verdict form at the appropriate time, the defendant waived any issue as to the ambiguity of question five. In addition, the court concluded that to reimpanel the jury would violate the sanctity and the thought process of the jury.

After the justice rendered his decision, the defendant informed the court that he would seek affidavits from all of the jurors. The plaintiff moved to enjoin unlawful contact with the jurors. The court, however, denied the plaintiff's motions. After seeking the affidavits from all of the jurors, the defendant attached four of the affidavits to five of the post-judgment motions that he filed. These motions included (1) a motion to poll the jury, (2) a motion to alter or amend a judgment under M.R.Civ.P. 59(e), (3) a motion to correct a clerical mistake pursuant to M.R.Civ.P. 60(a), (4) a motion for a new trial under M.R.Civ.P. 59(a), and (5) a motion for relief from judgment under M.R.Civ.P. 60(b). Denying all these motions, the court ruled, in part, that the verdict of a jury can not be impeached by affidavits from jurors. The defendant subsequently filed an appeal. The defendant had also filed a motion for remittitur pursuant to M.R.Civ.P. 60(a). The defendant, however, does not object to the denial of this motion.

I.

The defendant first argues that the justice erred in denying the defendant's motions for a directed verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. When viewing the denial of motions for a directed verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, we must determine whether the verdict can be sustained by any reasonable view of the evidence, including all justifiable inferences to be drawn therefrom, taken in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, the party in whose favor the verdict was rendered. Grant v. Warren Brothers Co., 405 A.2d 213, 216 (Me.1979) (citing Zamore v. Whitten, 395 A.2d 435, 439 (Me.1978)). The judgment in favor of the plaintiff must stand unless clearly erroneous. M.R.Civ.P. 50(c); (see Ogden v. Libby, 159 Me. 485, 485-86, 195 A.2d 414, 414-15 (1963)).

The jury could have found the following facts. There were no signs positioned along the route the plaintiff used to descend from the harvester warning the plaintiff to use the ladder in descending from the harvester. In addition, the defendant had never issued any oral instructions requiring employees to use the ladder to descend from the machine. The defendant had previously requested the plaintiff to jump on the rear conveyor. By issuing such encouragement to the plaintiff's presence on the rear conveyor, the defendant should have anticipated that the plaintiff would step not only onto the rear conveyor but also onto other conveyors and elevators on the machine. It was, therefore, reasonably foreseeable that the plaintiff would step from the back conveyor to the side elevator to descend from the machine especially when her access to the ladder was blocked. Consequently, the jury could have found the defendant negligent for failure to warn of the dangers of descending the machine by this route and in actively encouraging a dangerous practice. The jury could have found that the breach of any one, or all, of these duties was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries. The verdict for the plaintiff as to the issue...