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Appellate argument asks court to limit 'loss of chance' instruction after jury confusion in finger-injury case
Summary
In oral argument, counsel urged the court not to expand the 'loss of chance' jury instruction after a trial over a severe hand injury where jurors asked a question and the trial judge later granted a new trial; counsel said the order lacked record support and risked substituting judicial judgment for the jury's.
Speaker 1, an unidentified advocate in the transcript, told the court the trial judge erred in granting a new trial after a jury asked a question in a case where the plaintiff suffered a severe saw injury and ultimately lost his finger. Speaker 1 said the court had submitted a "loss of chance" instruction at trial and that the resulting new-trial order lists multiple reasons that counsel argues are not supported by the record.
The issue centers on whether the jury's question and subsequent deliberative confusion alone justify setting aside a verdict and whether the loss-of-chance instruction — historically applied in death and serious-prognosis cases — should be broadened to the facts here. Speaker…
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