Coryell v. Town of Pinedale

745 P.2d 883, 1987 Wyo. LEXIS 541
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 18, 1987
Docket86-85
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 745 P.2d 883 (Coryell v. Town of Pinedale) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coryell v. Town of Pinedale, 745 P.2d 883, 1987 Wyo. LEXIS 541 (Wyo. 1987).

Opinions

THOMAS, Justice.

The singular question to be resolved in this appeal is whether it was error for the trial court to instruct the jury on the law of joint and several liability in a wrongful death case which arose on July 10, 1983. The appellant briefed a second issue questioning the propriety of an instruction with respect to the lawfulness of pursuit by a police officer, but, at oral argument, appellant advised the court that the second issue was abandoned. We conclude that the trial court did not err in giving the instruction on joint and several liability, and the judgment of the district court is affirmed.

The appellant set forth the following statement of issues in her brief:

“1. Did the trial court err in instructing the jury on the effects of joint and several liability and allowing defense counsel to comment thereon?
[884]*884“2. Did the trial court err in instructing the jury that ‘it was lawful for Officer Frey to pursue Catón outside the corporate limits?’ ”

The appellees, Frey and Farnsworth, reiterated the appellant’s statement of issues. The Town of Pinedale, as appellee, made a counterstatement of the issues:

“I. The trial court correctly instructed the jury as to the effect of its verdict as required by W.S. § 1-1-114 (1977).
“II. The trial court correctly instructed the jury that a municipal police officer could lawfully pursue a suspect outside his corporate limits pursuant to W.S. § 31-5-1204 (1977).”

On July 10, 1983, John Coryell, the husband of the appellant, was struck and killed near the town of Pinedale by a vehicle driven by one Catón. Caton’s conviction of vehicular homicide was affirmed by this court in Caton v. State, Wyo., 709 P.2d 1260 (1985). The appellant initiated an action to recover for the wrongful death of her husband and named as defendants Ca-tón, the Town of Pinedale, James P. Frey, II and Win Farnsworth. As reflected in the court’s opinion, in Catón v. State, supra, Frey is the police officer who was chasing Catón at the time that Catón struck and killed John Coryell. The appellant’s theory was that Frey was negligent in chasing Catón at a high rate of speed. The theory against Farnsworth, who was the Pinedale chief of police when Frey was hired and at the time of Coryell’s death, was that he was negligent in the hiring and supervising of Frey. The Town of Pine-dale was included as a defendant under a theory of respondeat superior. Prior to trial, Catón settled the appellant’s claim against him, and he was dismissed from the action. In accordance with the Wyoming law relating to comparative negligence pursuant to § 1-1-109, W.S.1977, Ca-tón was included as an actor in the verdict form with respect to whom negligence should be apportioned. By the special verdict, the jury found Frey and Farnsworth were not negligent and assigned 100 percent of the negligence to Catón.

After the evidence was closed, the district court gave two instructions to the jury, over the appellant’s objections. The first instruction, which was one paragraph in a longer instruction defining generally the law of negligence, related to the law of joint and several liability. The court advised the jury:

“When the concurring negligence of two or more persons causes an injury, each person is wholly liable to the plaintiff regardless of the relative degree to which each contributes to the injury.”

The second instruction to which appellant objected advised the jury that it was lawful for Frey to pursue Catón outside the corporate limits of the Town of Pinedale. This appeal is premised upon the error of the court in giving the first instruction.

Appellant relies upon cases which addressed directly the propriety of advising a jury of the consequences of its verdict in assessing comparative negligence. The history of the instances in which this court and the legislature have addressed that issue is relatively brief. In Woodward v. Haney, Wyo., 564 P.2d 844 (1977), we held that it was improper to inform the jury of the consequences of its verdict in assessing comparative negligence. That holding was justified by the presumption that the Wyoming legislature, in adopting the comparative negligence statute from the state of Wisconsin, intended that it should be given the same construction as the courts of Wisconsin had given to the comparative negligence statute at the time of its enactment in Wyoming. In that opinion, we noted the enactment by our legislature of Ch. 10, S.L. of Wyoming 1976, which created § 1-7.7, W.S.1957, Interim Supp.1976, the last sentence of which provided “[i]n all cases the court shall inform the jury of the consequences of its verdict.” Although the balance of that statutory provision was declared unconstitutional in White v. Fisher, Wyo., 689 P.2d 102 (1984), the last sentence was not affected by that provision and remains a part of our statutory law. Chapter 188, § 1, S.L. of Wyoming 1977, appearing as § 1-1-114, W.S.1977.

[885]*885In Johnson v. Safeway Stores, Inc., Wyo., 568 P.2d 908 (1977), this court held that the phrase “in all cases” found in § 1-1-114, W.S.1977, evinced a clear and commonly understood meaning which justified advising the jury with respect to the effect of its percentage findings of negligence in a comparative negligence case. We distinguished the decision in Woodward v. Haney, supra, holding that the statute, § 1-7.7, W.S.1957, Interim Supp. 1976, readopted in Ch. 188, § 1, S.L. of Wyoming 1977, found in § 1-1-109, W.S. 1977, had been amended by implication with the adoption of § 1-1-114, W.S.1977. After the decision in Johnson v. Safeway Stores, Inc., supra, § 1-1-109, W.S.1977, was amended to authorize the court to “[ijnform the jury of the consequences of its determination of the percentage of fault.” Chapter 24, § 1, S.L. of Wyoming 1986, now found in § 1-1-109, W.S.1977, Cum.Supp.1986.

The prior holdings of this court have been restricted to advising the jury concerning the effect of the percentages of negligence assigned by the jury to the several defendants in comparative negligence cases. Essentially, this was true of the legislative responses to this court’s decisions until the rule of joint and several liability was abolished by the legislature in 1986. Chapter 24, § 1, S.L. of Wyoming 1986, now found in § l-l-109(d), W.S.1977, Cum.Supp.1986. Prior to the effective date of that legislation, June 11,1986, the law of joint and several liability had been firmly established in Wyoming. Chandler v. Dugan, 70 Wyo. 439, 251 P.2d 580 (1952); Phelps v. Woodward Construction Company, 66 Wyo. 33, 204 P.2d 179 (1949); Hester v. Coliseum Motor Company, 41 Wyo. 345, 285 P. 781 (1930). We recognize that, as appellant has argued, we have held § 1-1-109, W.S.1977, is efficacious only in those instances in which there is at least some evidence that the plaintiff was con-tributorily negligent. Kirby Building Systems v. Mineral Explorations Company, Wyo.

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Bluebook (online)
745 P.2d 883, 1987 Wyo. LEXIS 541, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coryell-v-town-of-pinedale-wyo-1987.