Texas Employers’ Insurance Association v. Price
Nature of the Case
This was an action to set aside an award of a worker’s compensation board.
Facts
Price (P) sustained personal injuries on the job and was awarded damages by a worker’s compensation board. Price objected to the final decision of that board and sought a jury trial. Price testified at trial that he could not work without pain, had to wear a brace, and that his condition was worsening. His doctor said that the injury was 20% partial and therefore not permanent but that he was unable to follow his trade. Texas Employers’ Insurance Association (D) contended that the injury resulted in only partial or temporary incapacity.
The jury awarded Price damages for a total disability. It was discovered that during deliberations a juror related his own personal experiences about Price’s type of back injury and told the other jurors that companies would not hire someone with Price’s type of injury. The defendant appealed on grounds of jury misconduct and that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. Defendant sought a new trial.
Issue
- May a jury disregard an expert’s testimony and then substitute the experiences of one of its own members during deliberations?
Holding and Rule of Law
- No. A jury may not disregard an expert’s testimony and then substitute the experiences of one of its own members during deliberations.
A jury is allowed to assign different weights to different conflicting testimony. If the jury believed the testimony of Price more than the testimony of Price’s own doctor, they may do so. On that basis alone the jury verdict was not necessarily against the weight of the evidence. However, a juror may not submit his own experiences to other jurors as evidence to be considered during deliberations. It is misconduct for a juror to relate to the other jurors his own personal experience as original evidence of material facts to be considered in their deliberations.
Disposition
Reversed and remanded for a new trial.