Jones, H., Aplt. v. Ott, R.

191 A.3d 782
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania·Decided August 21, 2018·No. 12 WAP 2017·Published·Cited by 43 cases

Opinions

SAYLOR, C.J., BAER, TODD, DONOHUE, DOUGHERTY, WECHT, MUNDY, JJ.

Justice Wecht delivers the Opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I and II(b) and announces the Judgment of the Court. Justices Baer and Todd join the opinion in full, and Chief Justice Saylor joins Parts I and II(b).

OPINION

JUSTICE WECHT1

We granted review in this case in order to clarify the methods by which one may preserve a challenge to a trial court's jury instructions in accordance with Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 227.1.2

*784I. Facts and Procedural History

In this negligence case, Helen Jones sought recovery for injuries sustained when a vehicle driven by Ron Ott rear-ended Jones' car while Ott was working for Eastern Elevator Service and Sales Company.3 Prior to trial, Jones filed proposed points for charge with the prothonotary. Of particular relevance to this appeal, Jones filed three proposed instructions related to negligence per se . After trial had commenced, but before the case went to the jury, the trial court held a charge conference. Neither the trial court nor the parties arranged for a court stenographer to transcribe the conference, and the trial court did not issue a ruling upon the parties' proposed instructions. Ultimately, the trial court's charge to the jury did not include an instruction concerning negligence per se . Notably, after charging the jurors, the trial court asked counsel whether there was anything with respect to the charge that either party wanted to put on the record. Jones' lawyer responded: "I have no issues with the charge, Your Honor." Notes of Testimony ("N.T."), 4/29/2015, at 25.

On April 29, 2015, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Ott. On May 8, 2015, Jones filed a post-trial motion contending that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury as to negligence per se .4 Ott responded that Jones had waived her jury-charge challenge by failing to lodge a timely objection at trial. See Ott's Resp. to Jones' Post-Tr. Mot., 5/12/2015, at ¶ 9. Jones replied that she had preserved her claim by docketing written proposed points for charge and raising the issue in a post-trial motion. Jones' Resp., 5/13/2015, at 2. The trial court denied Jones' motion, and Jones appealed to the Superior Court.

Jones invoked a line of decisions that began with Broxie v. Household Finance Company , 472 Pa. 373, 372 A.2d 741 (1977). In that case, Richard Broxie sued the Household Finance Company ("Household") for damages arising out of Broxie's termination from his position as a United States Postal Service worker. The trial court charged the jury as to intentional interference with contractual relations, including an instruction related to specific intent. Household did not object to this instruction, nor did it offer an alternate point for charge as to specific intent. The jury rendered a verdict in favor of Broxie. Household moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict ("JNOV") and for a new trial, based upon the trial court's inclusion of what Household averred was an erroneous specific intent instruction. The trial court denied Household's motion and entered judgment in favor of Broxie. On appeal, the Superior Court affirmed, holding that Household waived its request for JNOV or a new trial because it failed to object to the trial court's jury instructions at trial.

This Court affirmed. We began by reciting the prevailing rule:

It has long been the law in this Commonwealth that in order to preserve for appellate review an issue concerning the correctness of a trial court's charge to the jury, the complaining party must submit a specific point for charge or make a timely, specific objection to the charge as given.

*785Broxie , 372 A.2d at 743 (citing Commonwealth v. Sisak , 436 Pa. 262, 259 A.2d 428, 432 (1969) ; Lobalzo v. Varoli , 422 Pa. 5, 220 A.2d 634, 635 (1966) ; Bell v. Yellow Cab Co ., 399 Pa. 332, 160 A.2d 437, 441 (1960) ). Observing that Household conceded that it had failed to lodge a contemporaneous objection, we concluded:

[T]o allow a party to escape the consequences of failing to object timely and specifically to a trial court's charge simply because of the nature of the relief sought would elevate form over substance.... We therefore conclude that a party who neither specifically objects to a charge on a particular subject nor offers a specific point for charge waives its right to [JNOV] (or to appellate review of a trial court's denial of a motion for [JNOV] ) where the basis of the motion is that the law against which the sufficiency of the evidence is to be measured was not the law as given to the jury.

Id. at 744.

In Brancato v. Kroger Co. , 312 Pa.Super. 448, 458 A.2d 1377 (1983), highlighting the disjunctive options that the Broxie Court outlined by which a party may preserve a jury-charge challenge, the Superior Court found that plaintiff Brancato had preserved her jury-charge challenge notwithstanding her failure to lodge a specific objection at trial. The Brancato court concluded that, because plaintiff's trial counsel filed proposed points for charge with the prothonotary, which were explicitly denied by the trial court at the recorded charge conference, and because plaintiff then raised the issue in a post-trial motion, she had preserved her challenge. See Brancato , 458 A.2d at 1379-80 (quoting Broxie , 372 A.2d at 743 ). The

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