Cardinal v. Lupo

          COURT'S FINAL JURY INSTRUCTIONS

          JOSEPH C. SPERO, CHIEF MAGISTRATE JUDGE

         The Court intends to give the attached instructions to the jury after closing arguments.

         IT IS SO ORDERED.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 1

         DUTY OF JURY

         Members of the Jury: Now that you have heard all of the evidence and the arguments of the attorneys, it is my duty to instruct you on the law that applies to this case.

         Each of you has received a copy of these instructions that you may take with you to consult during your deliberations.

         It is your duty to find the facts from all the evidence in the case. To those facts you will apply the law as I give it to you. You must follow the law as I give it to you whether you agree with it or not. And you must not be influenced by any personal likes or dislikes, opinions, prejudices, or sympathy. That means that you must decide the case solely on the evidence before you. You will recall that you took an oath to do so.

         Please do not read into these instructions or anything that I may say or do or have said or done that I have an opinion regarding the evidence or what your verdict should be.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 2

         DUTY TO DELIBERATE

         Before you begin your deliberations, elect one member of the jury as your presiding juror. The presiding juror will preside over the deliberations and serve as the spokesperson for the jury in court.

         You shall diligently strive to reach agreement with all of the other jurors if you can do so. Your verdict must be unanimous.

         Each of you must decide the case for yourself, but you should do so only after you have considered all of the evidence, discussed it fully with the other jurors, and listened to their views.

         It is important that you attempt to reach a unanimous verdict but, of course, only if each of you can do so after having made your own conscientious decision. Do not be unwilling to change your opinion if the discussion persuades you that you should. But do not come to a decision simply because other jurors think it is right, or change an honest belief about the weight and effect of the evidence simply to reach a verdict.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 3

         CONSIDERATION OF EVIDENCE-CONDUCT OF THE JURY

         Because you must base your verdict only on the evidence received in the case and on these instructions, I remind you that you must not be exposed to any other information about the case or to the issues it involves. Except for discussing the case with your fellow jurors during your deliberations:

Do not communicate with anyone in any way and do not let anyone else communicate with you in any way about the merits of the case or anything to do with it. This includes discussing the case in person, in writing, by phone or electronic means, via email, via text messaging, or any internet chat room, blog, website or application, including but not limited to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, or any other forms of social media. This applies to communicating with your family members, your employer, the media or press, and the people involved in the trial. If you are asked or approached in any way about your jury service or anything about this case, you must respond that you have been ordered not to discuss the matter and to report the contact to the court.

Do not read, watch, or listen to any news or media accounts or commentary about the case or anything to do with it, although I have no information that there will be news reports about this case; do not do any research, such as consulting dictionaries, searching the Internet, or using other reference materials; and do not make any investigation or in any other way try to learn about the case on your own. Do not visit or view any place discussed in this case, and do not use Internet programs or other devices to search for or view any place discussed during the trial. Also, do not do any research about this case, the law, or the people involved- including the parties, the witnesses or the lawyers-until you have been excused as jurors. If you happen to read or hear anything touching on this case in the media, turn away and report it to me as soon as possible.

         These rules protect each party's right to have this case decided only on evidence that has been presented here in court. Witnesses here in court take an oath to tell the truth, and the accuracy of their testimony is tested through the trial process. If you do any research or investigation outside the courtroom, or gain any information through improper communications, then your verdict may be influenced by inaccurate, incomplete or misleading information that has not been tested by the trial process. Each of the parties is entitled to a fair trial by an impartial jury, and if you decide the case based on information not presented in court, you will have denied the parties a fair trial. Remember, you have taken an oath to follow the rules, and it is very important that you follow these rules.

         A juror who violates these restrictions jeopardizes the fairness of these proceedings, and a mistrial could result that would require the entire trial process to start over. If any juror is exposed to any outside information, please notify the court immediately.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 4

         COMMUNICATION WITH THE COURT

         If it becomes necessary during your deliberations to communicate with me, you may send a note through the courtroom deputy, Ms. Hom, signed by any one or more of you. No. member of the jury should ever attempt to communicate with me except by a signed writing. I will not communicate with any member of the jury on anything concerning the case except in writing or here in open court. If you send out a question, I will consult with the lawyers before answering it, which may take some time. You may continue your deliberations while waiting for the answer to any question. Remember that you are not to tell anyone-including the court-how the jury stands, whether in terms of vote count or otherwise, until after you have reached a unanimous verdict or have been discharged.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 5

         CLAIMS AND DEFENSES

         To help you follow the evidence, I will give you a brief summary of the positions of the parties:

         Plaintiff Christopher Cardinal asserts the following claims against defendant John Lupo:

1. Intentional misrepresentation;

2. Negligent misrepresentation; and

3. Breach of contract.

         Plaintiff Christopher Cardinal has the burden of proving these claims.

         Defendant John Lupo denies those claims. John Lupo asserts a counterclaim against Christopher Cardinal for breach of contract. John Lupo has the burden of proving that counterclaim.

Christopher Cardinal denies the counterclaim of John Lupo.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 6

         BURDEN OF PROOF-PREPONDERANCE OF THE EVIDENCE

         When a party has the burden of proving any fact, claim, or affirmative defense by a preponderance of the evidence, it means you must be persuaded by the evidence that the fact, claim, or affirmative defense is more probably true than not true. This standard applies unless you are specifically instructed that a different standard of proof applies to a particular fact, claim, or affirmative defense.

         You should base your decision on all of the evidence, regardless of which party presented it.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 7

         BURDEN OF PROOF-CLEAR AND CONVICING EVIDENCE

         Certain facts must be proved by clear and convincing evidence, which is a higher burden of proof. This means the party must persuade you that it is highly probable that the fact is true. I will tell you specifically which facts must be proved by clear and convincing evidence.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 8

         EVIDENCE:

         What Is Evidence

         The evidence you are to consider in deciding what the facts are consists of:

1. the sworn testimony of any witness; and

2. the exhibits that are admitted into evidence.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 9

         EVIDENCE:

         What Is Not Evidence

         In reaching your verdict, you may consider only the testimony and exhibits received into evidence. Certain things are not evidence, and you may not consider them in deciding what the facts are. I will list them for you:

(1) Arguments and statements by lawyers are not evidence. The lawyers are not witnesses. What they have said in their opening statements, closing arguments and at other times is intended to help you interpret the evidence, but it is not evidence. If the facts as you remember them differ from the way the lawyers have stated them, your memory of them controls.

(2) Questions and objections by lawyers are not evidence. Attorneys have a duty to their clients to object when they believe a question is improper under the rules of evidence. You should not be influenced by the objection or by the court's ruling on it.

(3) Testimony that was excluded or stricken, or that you were instructed to disregard, is not evidence and must not be considered.

(4) Anything you may have seen or heard when the court was not in session is not evidence. You are to decide the case solely on the evidence received at the trial.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 10

         EVIDENCE:

         Direct and Circumstantial Evidence

         Evidence may be direct or circumstantial. Direct evidence is direct proof of a fact, such as testimony by a witness about what that witness personally saw or heard or did. Circumstantial evidence is proof of one or more facts from which you could find another fact. You should consider both kinds of evidence. The law makes no distinction between the weight to be given to either direct or circumstantial evidence. It is for you to decide how much weight to give to any evidence.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 11

         EVIDENCE:

         Credibility of Witnesses

         In deciding the facts in this case, you may have to decide which testimony to believe and which testimony not to believe. You may believe everything a witness says, or part of it, or none of it.

         In considering the testimony of any witness, you may take into account:

(1) the opportunity and ability of the witness to see or hear or know the things testified to;

(2) the witness's memory;

(3) the witness's manner while testifying;

(4) the witness's interest in the outcome of the case, if any;

(5) the witness's bias or prejudice, if any;

(6) whether other evidence contradicted the witness's testimony;

(7) the reasonableness of the witness's testimony in light of all the evidence; and (8) any other factors that bear on believability.

         Sometimes a witness may say something that is not consistent with something else he or she said. Sometimes different witnesses will give different versions of what happened. People often forget things or make mistakes in what they remember. Also, two people may see the same event but remember it differently. You may consider these differences, but do not decide that testimony is untrue just because it differs from other testimony.

         However, if you decide that a witness has deliberately testified untruthfully about something important, you may choose not to believe anything that witness said. On the other hand, if you think the witness testified untruthfully about some things but told the truth about others, you may accept the part you think is true and ignore the rest.

         The weight of the evidence as to a fact does not necessarily depend on the number of witnesses who testify. What is important is how believable the witnesses were, and how much weight you think their testimony deserves.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 12

         EVIDENCE:

         Taking Notes

         Whether or not you took notes during the trial, you should rely on your own memory of the evidence. Notes are only to assist your memory. You should not be overly influenced by your notes or those of other jurors.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 13

         EVIDENCE:

         Party Having Power to Produce Better Evidence

         You may consider the ability of each party to provide evidence. If a party provided weaker evidence when it could have provided stronger evidence, you may distrust the weaker evidence.

         JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 14

         EVIDENCE:

         Willful Suppression of Evidence

         You may consider whether one party intentionally concealed or destroyed evidence. If you decide that a party did so, you may decide that the evidence would have been unfavorable to that party.

         JURY ...