Barrientos ex rel. Nelson v. Jones

2012 UT 33, 282 P.3d 50, 710 Utah Adv. Rep. 35, 2012 WL 2149778, 2012 Utah LEXIS 66
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJune 8, 2012
DocketNo. 20100277
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 2012 UT 33 (Barrientos ex rel. Nelson v. Jones) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barrientos ex rel. Nelson v. Jones, 2012 UT 33, 282 P.3d 50, 710 Utah Adv. Rep. 35, 2012 WL 2149778, 2012 Utah LEXIS 66 (Utah 2012).

Opinions

Associate Chief Justice NEHRING,

opinion of the Court:

INTRODUCTION

T1 Eighteen-month-old Wonzie Barrien-tos's mother, Jessica Nelson, was killed in a car accident, the tragic result of a high-speed chase in which an Ogden City police officer pursued a speeding car that ultimately crashed into Nelson's car. Plaintiff sued the police officer and Ogden City for negligence. Ogden City defended the case on the ground that it had governmental immunity and, if it did not, that it was not negligent. Ogden City won at trial1 and Plaintiff moved for a new trial, The trial court denied her motion and she appeals, She offers us many theories, any one of which could be sufficient for us to reverse the trial court and remand for a new trial, We conclude that the trial court abused its discretion when it refused to grant her a new trial We reach this result because Ogden City's lawyer violated Orders in Limine by asking inflammatory questions that served no purpose other than to create prejudice. We reverse and remand for a new trial.

BACKGROUND

{2 At approximately 11 p.m. on December 12, 2005, 62-year-old Philemon "Bob" Ellis visited 21-year-old Jessica Nelson at the home of her stepmother, Theresa Nelson. Mr. Ellis asked Jessica to give him a ride. Jessica left her 18-month-old daughter, Wonzie Barrientos, in Theresa's care and drove away with Mr. Ellis as her passenger. Later that night, at 3 a.m., Jessica, still with Mr. Ellis as a passenger, was passing through a green light at the intersection of [53]*5324th Street and Grant Avenue in Ogden, Utah, when they were broadsided by a car driven by Eddie Bustos.

T3 Mr. Bustos was hurtling down Grant Avenue at approximately eighty miles per hour. He was being chased in hot pursuit by Officer Matt Jones of the Ogden City Police Department. Officer Jones had begun his pursuit approximately seven minutes before the accident, when he suspected Mr. Bustos of visiting a "drug house." Officer Jones thought he saw Mr. Bustos violate several traffic laws and decided to pull him over. Officer Jones activated his overhead lights, but Mr. Bustos did not stop. Officer Jones then turned on his siren, but Mr. Bustos still did not stop. Once Mr. Bustos turned onto Grant Avenue, the high-speed chase began. A dispatch log recorded the entire audio of the chase, which lasted approximately one minute.

14 Officer Jones's patrol vehicle was equipped with a GPS system that plotted his speed, direction, and distance traveled every five seconds. The log shows that Officer Jones's vehicle traveled 7,078 feet in 77 see-onds, for an average speed of 62.5 miles per hour. Officer Jones's top speed was 88.5 miles per hour. He traversed ten intersections with five traffic lights. Officer Jones was twice ordered to terminate the chase by his superior, Sargent Burnett. Officer Jones did not hear the first order because he and Sargent Burnett had been speaking at the same time and this made their radios "cover" each other such that neither could hear the other. Shortly after hearing the second order, he turned off his sirens and lights and slowed down. Moments later, Mr. Bustos's car crashed into Jessica's car, instantly killing her and Mr. Ellis.

15 Plaintiff sued Ogden City and Officer Jones for negligence and sought damages. The jury answered "No" to this question: "Was Ogden City/Jones at fault in the pursuit of Eddie Bustos?" The jury also answered "No" to the question: "Was Ogden City negligent in failing to enact proper poli-cles regarding how to terminate a pursuit?"

T6 Plaintiff moved for a new trial, citing several grounds. The trial court denied her motion. She appeals. The facts relevant to each of her claims are discussed below. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Utah Code seetion 78A-3-1028)(J).

STANDARDS OF REVIEW

17 We first address Plaintiff's claim that she is entitled to a new trial because Ogden City's counsel violated various orders in limine, which may have resulted in prejudice. Motions for a new trial are governed by rule 59 of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure.

Because the grant of a new trial is ordinarily left to the sound discretion of the trial court, we will review the court's decision in this regard under an abuse of discretion standard. Moreover, we have stated that absent a showing by the appellant that the trial outcome would have differed, every reasonable presumption as to the validity of the verdict below must be taken as true upon appeal.2

18 We next consider Plaintiffs argument that the trial court erred when it admitted Exhibit D-101 without authentication. Because this decision relied on the trial court's interpretation of the rules of evidence, we review its conclusion for correct ness.3

19 Plaintiff also argues that she was entitled to a directed verdict that Ogden City was negligent, on the grounds that its policy did not comply with Utah Code section 41-6a-212.

When reviewing any challenge to a trial court's denial of a motion for directed verdict, we review the evidence and all reasonable inferences that may fairly be drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the party moved against, and will sustain the denial if reasonable minds could disagree with the ground asserted for directing a verdict.4

[54]*54If the trial court's denial of a motion for directed verdict relies upon any underlying legal conclusions, we review those conclusions for correctness.5

Finally, Plaintiff argues that the trial court abused its discretion when it excluded evidence concerning Officer Jones's on-the-job dishonesty. "[Wle grant a trial court broad discretion to admit or exclude evidence and will disturb its ruling only for abuse of discretion.... [Whe will not reverse a trial court's ruling on evidence unless the ruling was beyond the limits of reasonability.” 6

ANALYSIS

I. PLAINTIFF IS ENTITLED TO A NEW TRIAL BECAUSE OGDEN CITY'S LAWYER REPEATEDLY VIOLATED THE TRIAL COURTS ORDERS IN LIMINE

111 We first address Plaintiff's argument that she is entitled to a new trial because Ogden City's lawyers violated several orders in limine. The orders in limine were granted to prevent the introduction of any evidence attacking Jessica's character because any such evidence was irrelevant to the fact that she was killed. The pertinent orders blocked evidence of the following:

(1) whether Jessica was "hooking" or looking for drugs on the night of the accident. The trial court stated, "Any such evidence is not relevant to any issue in the case and is thus inadmissible. ... Even if the Court were to find that such evidence has some relevance, the Court would find that whatever probative value it has is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice and is thus inadmissible."
(2) speculation about where Jessica and Mr. Ellis were going or what they were doing on the night of the accident. The trial court stated, "The Court agrees with [Ogden City] that it is somewhat relevant that Jessica was out in the middle of the night instead of at home with her daughter. However, it is irrelevant what Jessica was doing while she was out. What Jessica was doing three hours before the accident is no more relevant than what she was doing three days or three weeks before the accident."
(3) Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2012 UT 33, 282 P.3d 50, 710 Utah Adv. Rep. 35, 2012 WL 2149778, 2012 Utah LEXIS 66, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barrientos-ex-rel-nelson-v-jones-utah-2012.