Hawkins v. Cockroft

848 S.W.2d 622, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 320, 1993 WL 59309
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 5, 1993
DocketNo. 17914
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 848 S.W.2d 622 (Hawkins v. Cockroft) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hawkins v. Cockroft, 848 S.W.2d 622, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 320, 1993 WL 59309 (Mo. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

FLANIGAN, Judge.

Plaintiffs Helen Hawkins and Raymond Hawkins brought this action against defendants Glenn Cockroft and HWH Corporation, seeking damages allegedly resulting from an incident which occurred on January 2,1987, involving a Chevrolet driven by Helen Hawkins and a farm tractor driven by defendant Cockroft on Missouri Highway 14 in Christian County. The petition alleged that hydraulic fluid escaped from the tractor onto the highway, and that the fluid caused the Chevrolet to leave the roadway and collide with a fence and telephone pole, resulting in injuries to Helen Hawkins. The petition alleged that HWH Corporation was the manufacturer and seller of a logsplitter attached to the tractor and was responsible for the escape of the hydraulic fluid. Raymond Hawkins sought damages on his derivative claim as Helen’s spouse.

The claims of both plaintiffs against both defendants were submitted to a jury. The verdict denied both plaintiffs recovery against defendant Cockroft, awarded Helen Hawkins $28,500 against defendant HWH Corporation, found that plaintiff Raymond Hawkins did not sustain damage as a direct result of injury to his wife and awarded him no damages, and assessed the proportions of fault as zero percent for Cockroft and 100 percent for HWH Corporation.

Both plaintiffs filed a motion for new trial which sought an order granting a new trial against defendant HWH Corporation as to the issue of damages only. The trial court sustained the motion and, in accordance with Rule 78.03,1 specified the ground on which the new trial was granted. The ground was that during voir dire examination venirepersons Ellison and Jimer-son, both of whom served on the jury, intentionally failed to disclose information requested during voir dire. Cockroft is no [624]*624longer in the case. HWH Corporation appeals.2

On this appeal, HWH Corporation contends, in general, that the court erred in finding that the nondisclosures of jurors Ellison and Jimerson were intentional and prejudicial and, further, even if a new trial was justified, it was improper to limit the new trial to the issue of damages only.

At the outset of voir dire, the prospective jurors were told to respond by raising their hands “if a question might apply to you.”

During voir dire, the following questions were among those addressed by plaintiffs’ counsel to the prospective jurors: “Has anybody been party to a lawsuit before?”; “Anybody ever had a claim or lawsuit filed against you?”; “Have any of you had claims made against you by somebody else, whether or not it finally resulted in a lawsuit, whether or not a lawsuit was actually filed, somebody filed a claim against you?” Neither Ellison nor Jimerson made any response to any of the foregoing questions.

A hearing was held on the motion for new trial, and Ellison and Jimerson testified. Ellison testified that she remembered the quoted questions being asked on voir dire and that she did not respond to any of those questions. She testified that at the time the questions were asked she and her husband were defendants in a lawsuit pending in the Circuit Court of Christian County in which a bank, as plaintiff, sought damages totaling approximately $93,000. She understood the questions which were asked on voir dire. Her education included more than two years in college. Under questioning by plaintiffs’ counsel, Ellison gave the following testimony:

Q. And, when I was asking those questions on voir dire examination did the thought of that lawsuit that was pending against you and your husband go through your mind?
A. Well, okay, when — lawsuit pending, yes, I guess. When you asked the questions I did not think there had been a lawsuit actually filed, but, yes, I did question in my mind whether it was something that pertained to me.
Q. Okay, and let’s say, as I understand you, when the questions were asked you didn’t understand that a lawsuit had actually been filed against you and your husband. Is that right?
A. That’s right.
Q. But, you did know, when those questions were asked, that the bank, who is the .plaintiff in that law-suit, was making claims against you and. your husband?
A. Yes.
Q. And, if a lawsuit had not been filed, it was going to be?
A. Right.
Q. And, you knew that when the question was asked, and did it go through your mind that perhaps that might be — that kind of information might be what I was asking when I asked the question “Has anybody had a claim made against you”?
A. Yeah, I wondered whether that was something I should respond to.
Q. Okay, and is there some reason why you didn’t respond to that question?
A. Well, like I said, I wasn’t sure that it actually applied to me, and I actually— you know, I didn’t think that it probably made any difference in my judgment, but you know, I thought about it, and I decided that it wasn’t something that really applied.
Q. And, you’re talking now about during the process of that voir dire examination you thought about the fact that this claim that was being made against you and your husband and the questions that I was asking about lawsuits and claims, and you just decided that it probably didn’t apply, so you didn’t say anything about it?
A. Right.

[625]*625Jimerson testified that he remembered the quoted questions being asked during voir dire and that he did not raise his hand or respond to those questions. He testified that he had been a defendant in a lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Christian County in which a bank was plaintiff. The lawsuit was filed in 1990 and was dismissed prior to the voir dire examination in the case at bar. The lawsuit involved a demand for recovery of possession of a mobile home in which the bank held a security interest in connection with a loan made to Jimerson. Under questioning by plaintiffs’ counsel, Jimerson gave the following testimony:

Q. When I asked the questions about whether you had been — had any claims been made against you, or whether you had had any lawsuits filed against you, did you think of this situation?
A. Yes.'
Q. You understood my questions—
A. —Yes.—
Q. —when I was asking those?
A. Yes.
Q. And, you thought of the fact that you had been a defendant in a lawsuit that had been filed here in Christian County while I was asking those questions?
A. Yes.
Q. And, you did not respond and did not reveal that information during the voir dire examination, is that true?
A. No, I didn’t.
Q. Did you realize at the time and in your own mind that my questions probably called for you to reveal the information about this lawsuit?
A. Yes.
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Bluebook (online)
848 S.W.2d 622, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 320, 1993 WL 59309, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hawkins-v-cockroft-moctapp-1993.