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WPI 23.02 Admitted Liability or Directed Verdict—Contributory Negligence—Issues and Burden of P...

6 WAPRAC WPI 23.02Washington Practice Series TMWashington Pattern Jury Instructions--Civil

6 Wash. Prac., Wash. Pattern Jury Instr. Civ. WPI 23.02 (7th ed.)
Washington Practice Series TM
Washington Pattern Jury Instructions--Civil
April 2022 Update
Washington State Supreme Court Committee on Jury Instructions
Part III. Issues—Burden of Proof
Chapter 23. Admitted Liability
WPI 23.02 Admitted Liability or Directed Verdict—Contributory Negligence—Issues and Burden of Proof
You do not need to decide whether the defendant was negligent. The defendant's negligence has already been established. [Accordingly, the answer(s) to question(s)(fill in appropriate numbers)in the special verdict form furnished to you, [is] [are] “yes,” and [that answer has] [those answers have] been filled in for you on the verdict form.] You are to decide what [injuries] [damages] [, if any,] to plaintiff were proximately caused by the defendant's negligence and what amount [, if any,] plaintiff should recover. The plaintiff has the burden of proof on these issues.
[The defendant's claim of contributory negligence is an independent claim. On that claim, you are to decide whether the plaintiff was negligent in one of the ways claimed and whether the plaintiff's negligence was a proximate cause of his or her own injury or damage. The defendant has the burden of proof on these issues.]
NOTE ON USE
Use this instruction instead of WPI 21.03 (Burden of Proof on the Issues—No Counterclaim), and WPI 21.04 (Burden of Proof on the Issues—Counterclaim), to set out the issues and burden of proof in a case in which the defendant's liability is admitted or directed, but the defendant also has a claim for contributory negligence that still involves jury issues.
The pattern instruction is drafted for the most common scenarios. It will need to be modified in cases that involve a type of fault other than negligence and in cases for which admitted or directed liability applies to the contributory negligence claim, not the original negligence claim.
In some cases, the first paragraph may need to be modified to specify the particular acts that have been established as constituting negligence.
Use WPI 21.01 (Meaning of Burden of Proof—Preponderance of the Evidence) with this instruction.
Use bracketed material as applicable. The bracketed material relating to questions in the special verdict form is not appropriate if general verdict forms are used. The last bracketed paragraph is to be used as appropriate if there is a counterclaim and one of the claims is still in issue.
If the bracketed sentence relating to the special verdict form is used, insert the appropriate number of the special verdict form question relating to the negligence of the appropriate party and fill in the answer “yes” on the verdict form. If there is no issue as to proximate cause, also insert the number of the proximate cause question in this instruction and fill in the answer “yes” on the verdict form. If a special verdict form is used, an alternative procedure is to change the questions on the special verdict form instead of filling in some of its answers.
If negligence is admitted or determined as a matter of law, and there is still an issue of proximate cause, use one of the proximate cause instructions from WPI Chapter 15 with this instruction.
[Current as of September 2018.]
End of Document