Martinez v. Moffat

1994 OK CIV APP 133, 890 P.2d 988, 66 O.B.A.J. 494, 1994 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 164, 1994 WL 757516
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 6, 1994
DocketNos. 81426, 81428
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1994 OK CIV APP 133 (Martinez v. Moffat) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martinez v. Moffat, 1994 OK CIV APP 133, 890 P.2d 988, 66 O.B.A.J. 494, 1994 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 164, 1994 WL 757516 (Okla. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

OPINION

HUNTER, Judge:

Jennifer Leah Martinez, a high school student, died as a result of injuries she received as a consequence of a one-car auto wreck. She was the passenger in a little MG driven by her best friend, Appellant Janice Mills.

The wreck occurred on a paved country road when Ms. Mills attempted to avoid colliding with Appellee’s pick up truck by passing him on the right, in the bar ditch. She testified that she accelerated while driving in the bar ditch so she could re-enter the roadway before colliding with a culvert. She regained the road, but lost control of the car when she hit gravel in the intersection.

The Martinez parents, Appellants, sued the Mills and Appellee Moffat for negligence. Before trial, Appellants Martinez accepted an insurance settlement from Mills and released Mills from liability. Mills were then realigned as Plaintiffs. After a trial to a jury, a verdict was entered in favor of Appellee Mof-fat and against both Appellants. The trial court entered judgment on the verdicts. Appellants Martinez filed motions for new trial and judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Appellants Mills filed a motion for new trial. The motions were not granted. Martinez and Mills appeal from the denial of their respective postjudgment motions. The appeals are consolidated for review.

We defer greatly to a jury verdict and will not reverse the judgment if there is “substantial evidence to support the verdict on any theory of law.” Eversole v. Oklahoma Hospital Founders Assoc., 818 P.2d 456, 459 (Okl.1991) (citations omitted). Clearly the trial court lacks authority to arbitrarily substitute its judgment for that of the jury’s determination. We will not reverse the trial court’s denial of a motion for new trial, a decision addressed to the trial court’s sound discretion, unless the grant or denial of the motion is shown to be error of a pure, unmixed question of law or arbitrary and capricious. Bennett v. Hall, 431 P.2d 339, 340-41 (Okl.1967). In considering a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, the trial court does not consider Defendant’s evidence. Sadler v. T.J. Hughes Lumber Company, Inc., 537 P.2d 454, 458 (Okl.App.1975). The trial court properly denies such motions and does not displace the jury’s fact-finding when there exists a “reasonable inference which reasonable men could choose to accept or reject ...” Sadler at 458.

DISCUSSION

The first proposition of error asserted by both Appellants is that the trial court erred when it allowed Appellee to present statements and evidence pertaining to the resolution of the conflict between the two Appellants. The parties preserved this question through their use of a motion in limine and in-trial objections. The trial court received the benefit of well-reasoned legal arguments from the attorneys before making its ruling. In the end, the court determined that it would caution the jury that Appellants had “resolved” their dispute; that the jury would not receive that issue for consideration, and that the resolution did not admit liability. The record reveals that no one attempted to present evidence concerning the settlement itself or the terms.1

[991]*991In the instant case, there is little real difference, however, between allowing the jury to speculate about what happened to create a new plaintiff out of an original defendant and introducing prohibited evidence of the settlement to prove liability. The trial court erred in allowing the evidence to be presented to the jury, even in the guise of evidence of the pleading, not of the settlement. There is certainly no reason for the court, even with the cautionary statement, to have permitted the attempted introduction of the statements more than once. The error does not require reversal, however, because the other competent, relevant evidence amply supports the jury’s verdict and Appellants have failed to show how the error was prejudicial to their cases. In Payne v. McRay Brothers, 446 P.2d 49, 51-52 (Okl.1968), Appellant argued that the trial court erred when it allowed the introduction of inadmissible testimony about an offer to compromise the claim. The Oklahoma Supreme Court held that if it were error, it was harmless. In its syllabus, at 50, the court held:

Where parties seek reversal of a judgment in accord with a verdict, on the sole ground of the admission of allegedly inadmissible testimony, they have the burden of showing, not only that it was inadmissible, but also that it was prejudicial to them. And, where the judgment is within the issues, no claim is made that it is insufficiently supported by competent evdence (sic), it does not affirmatively appear that said testimony was prejudicial to those parties, and there is nothing in the record to indicate that the verdict would have been different, had said testimony not been given, said judgment will not be disturbed.

We also find the facts in the instant ease distinguishable from those found in Cleere v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 669 P.2d 785 (Okl.App.1983). In Cleere, at 787, there was evidence introduced about the release given by two absent tortfeasors and the amount of the consideration. In that ease we held that evidence of the settlement offered to prove liability was inadmissible. We further held, at 789, that if such evidence were offered to show bias or prejudice, for example, the court was required to exercise its discretion and determine whether such evidence should be excluded because its “probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, misleading the jury ... or unfair and harmful surprise.” (citations omitted). In the case at hand, we hold that because there was no evidence introduced about the terms of the settlement, because the court’s cautionary statements fairly informed the jury of the reason why Appellants Mills were realigned as Plaintiffs, because other evidence in the record supports the fact that Appellee was not the proximate cause of Appellants’ injuries and because Appellants have failed to show why the error was prejudicial to their causes, the error does not require reversal.

Both sets of Appellants raise another issue in common. They allege that Appel-lee was allowed to introduce testimony and exhibits of his accident reconstruction expert without having informed them before trial. First Appellants assert that the expert betrayed the promise he made during his deposition that if he changed his opinion, he would make himself available for a supplemental deposition. The promise extracted during the deposition, however, was the reservation of the right to take a supplemental deposition if the expert changed either of his two main opinions which were that (1) at the time Appellee’s truck pulled out Appellant Mills’ car was still west of the hill crest and (2) Appellant Mills could have stopped her car prior to striking the rear of Appellee’s truck. Appellants have not-shown us that the expert changed his opinion at trial. Appellants also claim that the expert’s exhibits were not listed in the pretrial order. The pretrial order fists “demonstrative aids.” The two charts of which Appellants complain were graphic representation of the expert’s opinion about whether the driver had sufficient time to stop her car had she applied her brakes.

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Bluebook (online)
1994 OK CIV APP 133, 890 P.2d 988, 66 O.B.A.J. 494, 1994 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 164, 1994 WL 757516, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martinez-v-moffat-oklacivapp-1994.