AMI 713 Issues—Acting in Concert

Arkansas Supreme Court Committee On Jury Instructions-Civil

Ark. Model Jury Instr., Civil AMI 713

Arkansas Model Jury Instructions-Civil

December 2023 Update

Arkansas Supreme Court Committee On Jury Instructions-Civil

Chapter 7. Agency—Employment—Partnership—Joint Enterprise—Imputed Liability

AMI 713 Issues—Acting in Concert

(Plaintiff)[also] claims damages from (defendant) on the basis that (defendant) acted in concert with (other tortfeasor), and has the burden of proving each of three essential propositions:

First, that (plaintiff) has proved all the essential propositions necessary for a verdict on the claim for (state the underlying intentional tort);

Second, that (defendant) and (other tortfeasor) entered into a conscious agreement to pursue a common plan or design to commit (state the underlying intentional tort);

Third, that (defendant) actively took part in the (state the underlying intentional tort).

[If you find from the evidence in this case that each of these propositions has been proved, then your verdict on this claim should be for (plaintiff); but if, on the other hand, you find from the evidence that any of these propositions has not been proved, then your verdict on this claim should be for (defendant).]

NOTE ON USE

This instruction should be used in cases governed by the Civil Justice Reform Act of 2003, Ark. Code Ann. § 16-55-205. In cases not governed by the Civil Justice Reform Act of 2003, use AMI 714.

Do not use the final bracketed paragraph when the case is submitted on interrogatories.

Identify each person or entity claimed to have liability in the first paragraph; identify each of the tortfeasors in the second proposition.

Insert the underlying intentional tort (e.g., fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, interference with contract, etc.) in the first, second and third essential elements. This instruction must be accompanied by a separate instruction which states the essential elements of the underlying tort. For example, if the underlying tort is deceit, use AMI 402 with this instruction.

COMMENT

This instruction incorporates the standards for shared liability prescribed by the Civil Justice Reform Act of 2003, Ark. Code Ann. § 16-55-205. These standards may not be the same as recognized in the doctrine of the civil conspiracy. See, e.g., Dodson v. Allstate Ins. Co., 345 Ark. 430, 47 S.W.3d 866 (2001), appeal after remand, 365 Ark. 458, 231 S.W.3d 711 (2006), subsequent appeal after remand 2011 Ark. 19 (a corporate agent cannot be held liable for civil conspiracy in the absence of evidence showing that he was acting for his own personal benefit rather than for the benefit of the corporation); Mason v. Funderburk, 247 Ark. 521, 446 S.W.2d 543 (1969) (a civil conspiracy is a combination of two or more persons to accomplish a purpose that is unlawful or oppressive or immoral, by unlawful, oppressive or immoral means, to the detriment of another); Wilson v. Davis, 138 Ark. 111, 211 S.W. 152 (1919) (a conspiracy may be inferred, although no actual meeting of the parties is proved, if the testimony shows that two or more people pursued by their acts the same unlawful object, each doing a part, so that their apparently independent acts were in fact connected).

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