Richins v. Deere & Co.

231 F.R.D. 623, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28209, 2004 WL 3413348
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Mexico
DecidedNovember 17, 2004
DocketNo. CIV-03-0072 JB/LAM
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 231 F.R.D. 623 (Richins v. Deere & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Mexico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Richins v. Deere & Co., 231 F.R.D. 623, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28209, 2004 WL 3413348 (D.N.M. 2004).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

BROWNING, District Judge.

THIS MATTER comes before the Court on the Plaintiffs Motion for New Trial, filed May 4, 2004 (Doc. 162). The primary issue is whether the Plaintiffs, A.D. and Sue Riehins, and Sue Riehins as next friend of Arthur Dloyd Riehins, Jr., a minor, have met their burden of showing one of the alleged bases for their motion constituted an abuse of discretion or clear error that resulted in prejudice to a substantial right. For the reasons that the Court stated on the record at the July 14, 2004 hearing, and consistent with that oral ruling, the Court concluded that, because the Riehins have not met their burden, the Court will deny the motion.

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This suit arises out of injuries that A.D. Riehins sustained while operating a John Deere 200 LC Excavator on April 18, 2000. On March 29, 2004, a jury trial on this matter began. At the close of evidence, the Court submitted to the jury questions and instructions relating to negligence, defect, causation and damages. On April 2, 2004, the jury rendered its verdict, finding no negligence and no defect by any of the Defen[625]*625dants, Deere and Company (“Deere”) and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. (“Hitachi”). On April 20, 2004, the Court entered a final judgment in favor of the Defendants and dismissed the case with prejudice. See Final Judgment (Doc. 160).

The Richins move for a new trial pursuant to rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Richins move for a new trial, because: (i) the Court did not provide an instruction on spoilation, despite the Defendants’ alleged destruction of documents; (ii) the Court made allegedly incorrect evi-dentiary rulings resulting in an allegedly erroneous jury verdict; (iii) the Court allegedly improperly struck certain jurors; and (iv) the jury verdict was allegedly against the great weight of the evidence.

LAW GOVERNING MOTIONS FOR NEW TRIAL

Motions for a new trial are generally committed to the district court’s discretion. See McDonough Power Equip., Inc. v. Greenwood, 464 U.S. 548, 556, 104 S.Ct. 845, 78 L.Ed.2d 663 (1984); McHargue v. Stokes Div. of Pennwalt Corp., 912 F.2d 394, 395 (10th Cir.1990); Atencio v. City of Albuquerque, 911 F.Supp. 1433, 1437 (D.N.M.1995). They are not regarded with favor and the trial court should grant them with great caution. See United States v. Kelley, 929 F.2d 582, 586 (10th Cir.1991). Where a party presents the court with a motion for a new trial based on contentions of trial error, the alleged errors will not justify the grant of a new trial unless they are “clearly erroneous, as well as prejudicial and must have affected the substantial rights of the parties.” Atencio v. City of Albuquerque, 911 F.Supp. at 1436 (citing Hinds v. General Motors Corp., 988 F.2d 1039, 1049 (10th Cir.1993)); Rasmussen Drilling, Inc. v. Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corp., 571 F.2d 1144, 1148-49 (10th Cir. 1978); Fed.R.Civ.P. 61. An alleged error by the trial court constitutes grounds for granting a new trial only where the trial court concludes that, absent the alleged error, a jury would likely have reached a contrary result. See McDonough Power Equip., Inc. v. Greenwood, 464 U.S. at 553-54, 104 S.Ct. 845.

In McDonough Power Equip., Inc. v. Greenwood, the Supreme Court of the United States explained some of the reasons for the courts’ reluctance to set aside a jury’s verdict:

This Court has long held that [a litigant] is entitled to a fair trial but not a perfect one, for there are no perfect trials. Trials are costly, not only for the parties, but also for the jurors performing their civic duty and for society which pays the judges and support personnel who manage the trials.
* * sN * * #
We have also come a long way from the time when all trial error was presumed prejudicial ____ The harmless error rules adopted by this Court and Congress embody the principle that courts should exercise judgment in preference to the automatic reversal for “error” and ignore errors that do not affect the essential fairness of the trial.

464 U.S. at 553,104 S.Ct. 845 (quotations and citations omitted). The Supreme Court concluded with the fundamental proposition that a court must, at every stage of the proceeding, disregard any error or defect which does not affect the parties’ substantial rights. See id. (quoting Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 759-60, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946)).

The burden of showing clear error and prejudice to substantial rights rests with the party asserting error. See Blanke v. Alexander, 152 F.3d 1224, 1236 (10th Cir. 1998); United States v. Mitchell, 113 F.3d 1528, 1532 (10th Cir.1997); K-B Trucking Co. v. Riss Int’l Corp., 763 F.2d 1148, 1156 (10th Cir.1985); Atencio v. City of Albuquerque, 911 F.Supp. at 1437.

ANALYSIS

All of the Richins’ claims of error suffer from a common defect. The Richins do not establish that the jury would likely have reached a contrary result if the alleged errors had not occurred. The Richins have presented only arguments. Those arguments alone do not constitute a reasonable basis for reaching the conclusion to justify a new trial. See Morrison Knudsen Corp. v. [626]*626Firemans’ Fund Ins. Co., 175 F.3d 1221, 1230 n. 3 (10th Cir.1999)(noting that bald assertions of prejudice are insufficient); Angelo v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc., 11 F.3d 957, 962 (10th Cir.1993)(noting that, where the jury believed expert witness despite several challenges to her testimony, there was no reason to believe allegedly concealed impeachment material would have made any difference); Smith v. Atlantic Richfield, 814 F.2d at 1485-86 (explaining that, where there was ample conflicting evidence on key issues, the court could not conclude that the jury had been misled by exclusion of the plaintiffs proffered testimony or by admission of evidence which was not decisive to the case); Greenwood v. McDonough Power Equip., Inc., 731 F.2d 690

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Bluebook (online)
231 F.R.D. 623, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28209, 2004 WL 3413348, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richins-v-deere-co-nmd-2004.