Hayes v. Boykin

• Decision Date: 14 July 1960
• Docket Number: 6 Div. 494
• Citation: 271 Ala. 588,126 So.2d 91
• Parties: Kenneth M. HAYES v. Luther BOYKIN.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 91

126 So.2d 91

271 Ala. 588

Kenneth M. HAYES v. Luther BOYKIN.

6 Div. 494.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

July 14, 1960.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 26, 1961.

Mead & Norman and Marshall H. Fitzpatrick, Birmingham, for appellant.

Parsons, Wheeler & Rose, Birmingham, for appellee.

LIVINGSTON, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment setting aside a jury verdict and granting to the appellee a new trial in his suit for damages against the appellant and one Vera B. McCoy. Baykin, a pedestrian, was injured as a result of a collision between the automobiles driven by Kenneth M. Hayes and Vera B. McCoy. There was but one count in his complaint charging negligence, and upon the trial of the cause the verdict was rendered in favor of Boykin and against the defendant, Vera B. McCoy, in a substantial amount. The jury found in favor of the defendant, Kenneth M. Hayes. Following the jury verdict, the judgment was rendered in favor of Boykin and against Vera B. McCoy in accordance with the jury verdict and in favor of defendant Hayes.

Thereafter, appellee filed a motion for a new trial as to the defendant Hayes, consisting of many grounds. The trial court expressly overruled all of the grounds contained in the motion for a new trial except ground 6. However, as to ground 6, the trial court concluded that it stated good cause for setting aside the judgment in favor of Hayes and accordingly granted to the plaintiff a new trial against the defendant Hayes. While, not here material, the trial court also granted a new trial to Vera B. McCoy.

Ground 6 of the appellee's motion for a new trial reads as follows:

'That there was irregularity in the trial of said cause which prevented the plaintiff from having a fair trial as to the defendant Kenneth M. Hayes, which irregularity consisted in this, namely: the twenty-four men drawn from the jury box for the selection of a jury in this case were questioned as to whether any of them were acquainted with Paul G. Parsons' partners, viz., Malcolm L. Wheeler or Edward L. Rose; that there was a juror who served on said case by the name of James Wendell Siniard who knew Malcolm L. Wheeler, one of the law partners of Paul G. Parsons, but who remained silent and failed or refused to reveal his acquaintance with Malcolm L. Wheeler; that the said James Wendell Siniard was one of the arresting officers of and prosecuting witnesses in a Birmingham Police Court case against one Charles Patrick, which defendant was represented at said trial by Malcolm L. Wheeler; that said trial became very heated and intense, the defendant Patrick being acquitted, and the said James Wendell Siniard being removed or relieved as a policeman as result of his conduct in said case and at said trial.'

It affirmatively appears that on the voir dire examination of the jurors the following questions were propounded:

'I would like to know if any of you gentlemen are closely acquainted with Mr. Parsons or Mr. Malcolm Wheeler, or Mr. Ed Rose of the firm of Parsons, Wheeler & Rose?

'No special acquaintance with any member of the firm?'

No juror responded in any manner to these questions.

After a hearing, the trial court in its order granting the new trial observed:

'It is quite evident * * * that the juror Siniard knew that he was under a duty to answer these questions as he did reply to some of them.'

The affidavits show that the juror Siniard, formerly a police officer, had previously been involved in a controversy with a negor which led to, or resulted in, his discharge from the City of Birmingham as a police officer. This followed a trial in a charge against a negro by the name of Patrick, who was defended by Mr. Malcolm Wheeler, an attorney, and the same attorney referred to in questions asked all the jurors.

Appellant earnestly insists that the trial court in its application of the rule announced in Leach v. State, 31 Ala.App. 390, 18 So.2d 285, erred because, as appellant contends, the holding of the Leach case repeats and applies the principle, that, in order for the undisclosed information to warrant the granting of a new trial, its nature must be such that the withholding thereof by the juror resulted in probable prejudice or injury to the complaining party.

This reasoning was employed by Mr. Justice Lawson in his dissenting opinion in Birmingham Electric Co. v. Yoast, 256 Ala. 673, 57 So.2d 103, 30 A.L.R.2d 907. But the majority of the court in that case refused to disturb the ruling of the trial court wherein a new trial was granted because of the disqualification of a juror even though the plaintiff had recovered a money judgment and although the trial court had expressly refused to set aside the verdict on the grounds of the inadequacy of the damages.

In Beasley v. State, 39 Ala.App. 182, 96 So.2d 693, many of the authorities of this and other jurisdictions dealing with the disqualifications of jurors are analyzed. Judge Cates, in discussing the decision of Mr. Justice Lawson in Rosenbush Feed Co. v. Garrison, 251 Ala. 245, 37 So.2d 106, 109, quoted from that case as follows [39 Ala.App. 182, 96 So.2d 700]:

'If Mills had served on the jury which tried the case, the trial court's action in refusing to grant a new trial to defendants would require a reversal, for we are in accord with the opinions of the Court of Appeals hereafter cited, which hold that a new trial must be granted where a prospective juror did not answer correctly the material questions propounded by the court in qualifying the jury and where such juror was accepted on the jury which tried the case. A new trial must be granted under such circumstances irrespective of whether the concealment was deliberate or unintentional. Leach v. State, 31 Ala.App. 390, 18 So.2d 285; Griffith v. State, 31 Ala.App. 432, 18 So.2d 284. * * *'

Judge Cates concluded as follows:

'We find further dictum in the same vein in Parkinson v. Hudson, 265 Ala. 4, 88 So.2d 793. In view of these recent expressions of renewed confidence in Leach v. State, supra, we find reversible error in the denial of the motion for a new trial.'

Then, too, this court, the Court of Appeals, in reviewing the action of the trial court in the Leach case, supra, used the very plain and expressive language as follows [31 Ala.App. 390, 18 So.2d 287]:

'Here is no scope for the operation of Rule 45, to the effect that...