Golden Eagle Archery Inc. v. Jackson

• Decision Date: 29 June 2000
• Citation: 24 S.W.3d 362
• Parties: (Tex. 2000) GOLDEN EAGLE ARCHERY, INC., PETITIONER v. RONALD JACKSON, RESPONDENT NO. 98-1076
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 362

24 S.W.3d 362 (Tex. 2000)

GOLDEN EAGLE ARCHERY, INC., PETITIONER v. RONALD JACKSON, RESPONDENT

NO. 98-1076

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS

Argued on April 6, 1999

Delivered on June 29, 2000

ON PETITION FOR REVIEW FROM THE COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] JUSTICE GONZALES delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CHIEF JUSTICE PHILLIPS, JUSTICE HECHT, JUSTICE ENOCH, JUSTICE OWEN, JUSTICE BAKER, JUSTICE HANKINSON and JUSTICE O'NEILL joined.

The main issue in this case is whether procedural and evidentiary rules may constitutionally prohibit jurors from testifying post-verdict about statements made during deliberations, unless such statements concern outside influences. See TEX. R. CIV. P. 327(b); TEX. R. CIV. EVID. 606(b). Ronald Jackson obtained a verdict in a products liability case, but moved for a new trial on several grounds, including juror misconduct, juror bias, and the adequacy of the verdict. After a hearing, the trial court denied the motion. The court of appeals reversed and remanded for a new trial, holding that Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 327(b) denied Jackson his constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury trial because it prohibited him from proving jury misconduct during deliberations. 974 S.W.2d 952, 954. Because we conclude that the rule is constitutional, we reverse the court of appeals's judgment and remand to that court to consider Jackson's other points of error that the court of appeals did not reach.

I

Jackson's wife bought him a Golden Eagle compound bow from a Wal-Mart store. When Jackson drew back the string the bow slipped out of his hand and a cable guard struck his eye, causing severe injuries. He sued Golden Eagle Archery, Inc., Coleman Company, Inc., and Wal-Mart, Inc. for negligence and products liability. The trial court dismissed the claims against Coleman and Wal-Mart, leaving Golden Eagle as the sole defendant. The jury found that Golden Eagle defectively marketed the bow but failed to find that the bow was defectively designed. The jury also found that Jackson was negligent, and attributed to him 45% of the responsibility for his injury. The jury found Jackson's damages to be approximately $25,000 for medical care, $2,500 for physical pain and mental anguish, $2,500 for vision loss, $0 for physical impairment other than vision loss, $1,500 for disfigurement, and $4,600 for past lost earnings. Ten of the twelve jurors signed the verdict. The trial court asked the ten if they agreed to the entire verdict, but neither party asked to poll the individual jurors. The trial court then rendered a judgment for approximately $20,000 damages and $6,700 prejudgment interest.

Jackson moved for a new trial. He challenged the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support several of the jury's answers, contested the trial court's exclusion of certain evidence, and alleged that juror Barbara Maxwell concealed a bias during voir dire and that she and other jurors committed misconduct before and during formal deliberations. The motion attached affidavits from one of Jackson's attorneys and three jurors. Two of the affidavits were from the jurors who did not vote for the verdict, Donald Frederick and Janet Cline. A third was from the presiding juror, Shawn Lynch. The motion asserted that even though Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 327(b) prohibits consideration of juror affidavits to impeach the verdict, to ignore the evidence of misconduct during deliberations would unconstitutionally deny Jackson his right to a fair trial. Golden Eagle responded that both Rule 327(b) and Texas Rule of Civil Evidence 606(b) prohibit the court from considering the juror's affidavits, that Jackson's attorney's affidavit primarily recounted hearsay statements about what some jurors told him, and that Jackson waived any juror-bias complaint because he did not conduct a sufficient voir dire.

At the hearing on his motion for new trial, Jackson offered the four affidavits as well as juror Frederick's testimony. The trial court admitted the testimony and affidavits without limitation "to the extent they contain appropriate evidentiary matters for consideration under Rule 327," and otherwise for the purposes of Jackson's bill of exceptions. At the hearing, Jackson's attorney read passages from the voir dire questioning of the jurors to demonstrate that Maxwell had hidden her bias against lawsuits of this kind. Jackson's attorney began voir dire with a lengthy question about whether any jurors were opposed to lawsuits, or could not be fair, or simply did not want to be on a jury.¹ A panel member raised his hand. Jackson's attorney told the juror he would ask him more questions later, then asked the panel, "Anyone else?" No one responded. Jackson's attorney continued:

Is there anybody here, by the same token, who would just say, "Look, I just can't do that. I can't-I don't believe in it. I just can't give a verdict that means that somebody is going to have to pay a lot of money"? Anybody here that-again, if you do, now is the time. You owe it to yourself and you owe it to these people and to the Court to be honest about it because we-all we can do is ask you about it, but you have to tell us. Anybody here that could not do that?

Again, no one responded. Finally, Jackson's attorney asked the panel if any of them had served on a jury. Maxwell answered that she had served on both a civil and a criminal case. She said the civil case involved a man's death in an accident. Jackson's attorney asked:

Q Did you-did you reach a verdict in that case?

A No.

Q Anything about that case that would keep you from being fair here?

A No, sir.

Frederick testified in his affidavit and at the hearing about a conversation he had with Maxwell during a trial recess. According to Frederick, Maxwell told him that previously she had served on a jury that awarded nothing for a wrongful death claim, which Frederick thought contradicted her voir dire statements, and further told him she did not believe in "awarding money in stuff like that," and that "we are the ones who end up paying for it."

The remaining juror testimony concerned events occurring after the jury retired to begin deliberating the evidence. Frederick, Cline, and Lynch all recalled that the jury bartered on the amounts to award for disfigurement and loss of vision, although their accounts contradict each other in the specifics. Frederick said that initially ten jurors had agreed to award $2,500 for disfigurement and nine had agreed to award $2,500 for loss of vision, but traded votes to award $1,500 for disfigurement and $2,500 for loss of vision. Lynch, however, claimed that initially ten jurors had agreed on $1,500 for loss of vision, and eight agreed on $2,500 for disfigurement, but ultimately decided to switch these amounts. Cline merely remembered that the jurors "traded off" on these answers.

Frederick also stated that during the jury's discussion of damages, Maxwell told other jurors that "there is too much of this going on," which he took to mean the filing of lawsuits. He said that she "held up a document which showed the name of Wal-Mart and said something to the effect that the plaintiff had probably already gotten a big settlement from Wal-Mart and did not need any more money out of this case."

Frederick and Lynch additionally testified that during jury room deliberations Maxwell speculated whether Jackson had been drinking alcoholic beverages when the accident occurred. Finally, all three juror affidavits claim that Maxwell strongly argued against Jackson's position throughout the jury room deliberations.

The trial court overruled Jackson's motion for a new trial explaining its ruling in a letter to the parties. The court advised it would not sustain Jackson's jury misconduct arguments because the jurors' affidavits and testimony all pertained to jury deliberations and were therefore incompetent. The court also rejected Jackson's complaints about undisclosed juror bias. Acknowledging that the same evidence offered to show jury misconduct "would certainly support a conclusion that the juror in question was biased against product liability suits" the court did not resolve whether Maxwell was in fact biased. Instead, the court concluded that Jackson's attorney's voir dire questioning of Maxwell was not specific enough to show she purposefully concealed any bias. Jackson did not request the trial court to make any fact findings about any of these issues.

On appeal, Jackson asserted eight points of error, any one of which, if sustained, would result in a new trial. His first six points challenged the sufficiency of the amount of the damages awarded, the weight of the evidence supporting the jury's verdict, and the exclusion of certain evidence. The court of appeals addressed only Jackson's last two points about jury misconduct and juror bias. A divided court of appeals reversed the trial court's judgment and remanded the case for a new trial. The court expressed its concern about "the ever increasing lack of veracity of jurors on voir dire. . . ." 974 S.W.2d at 957. The court held that because Rule 327(b) denied Jackson the only evidence available to prove misconduct, it denied him his right to a fair and impartial trial. It concluded that the evidence established Maxwell's misconduct, and that the misconduct was material and caused harm. Golden Eagle petitioned this Court for review, and we granted the petition.

II

This case turns on whether, and to what extent, the jurors' affidavits and testimony are admissible to show juror misconduct such as undisclosed bias. The problem of jury misconduct or bias presents difficult choices about how best to promote the jury system's "purity and efficiency" under Article I, Section 15 of the Texas Constitution. On the one hand, it may be desirable in a particular case to rectify a verdict improperly decided because of juror bias or...