California Court of Appeal

In a wrongful death action arising from a motor vehicle collision, a judgment for plaintiff and damages award, representing an 80 percent fault allocation to defendants pursuant to a special verdict, is reversed and remanded in part where the trial court erred: 1) in accepting the juror declarations to inquire into and resolve the results of the jury's decision-making process; 2) when it made a credibility determination that a jury foreperson could not effectively have voted other than 80/20 at any relevant time; and 3) in failing to reconvene the jury for further deliberations on the basis of a jury dissent when there was no essential ninth vote on the special verdict for apportionment of liability.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/02/2008
• Published 04/02/2008

Judges

• HUFFMAN, Acting P.J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• McAtee Harmeyer,Jeff G. Harmeyer and Greg A. McAtee, San Diego, for Defendants and Appellants., Reed Smith, Paul D. Fogel, Dennis Peter Maio, San Francisco;  The Zucker Law Firm, Andrew J. Zucker, Riverside;  The Basile Law Firm and Jude Basile for Plaintiffs and Respondents.