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Civil Procedure Law Case Summaries

Keener v Jeld-Wen Inc v S16343-2009 05 07
 

GEORGE, C. J.-

We granted review to address issues concerning a trial court's polling of a civil jury pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 618 (hereafter section 618) after rendering a verdict. This statute provides that if "more than one-fourth of the jurors disagree" with a verdict upon polling, "the jury must be sent out again" for further deliberation, "but if no disagreement is expressed, the verdict is complete and the jury discharged from the case." (Italics added.) We conclude that a juror's silence at polling, brought about by the trial court's failure to poll that particular juror on one of several special verdict questions, does not constitute an expressed disagreement with the verdict under section 618, and hence does not prevent the trial court from accepting the verdict as complete and discharging the jury. We further conclude that a party's failure to object to incomplete polling before the jury is discharged forfeits any claim of irregularity in polling procedure. {Slip Opn. Page 2}

Held:

In a tort action, the Court of Appeals judgment is reversed where: 1) the trial court did not err in accepting the verdict as complete and discharging the jury, as the juror's silence at polling brought about by the trial court's failure to poll the juror on one of several special verdict questions did not constitute an expressed disagreement with the verdict under Code of Civ. Pro. sec. 618; and 2) defendant's failure to object to incomplete polling before the jury is discharged forfeits any claim of error in polling procedure.
Keener v. Jeld-Wen, Inc. -S163430-5/7/09 SC
Keener v. Jeld-Wen, Inc. -S163430-5/7/09 SC-pdf

 

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