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Depew v. Sullivan5/22/2003
(For Official Publication)
Plaintiff Huey Depew sued defendant Denton Sullivan to recover for injuries he sustained when their vehicles collided in a traffic accident. The jury returned a verdict for Defendant, and Plaintiff appealed. Because we hold that the trial court erred in restricting the scope of voir dire during jury selection because of religious considerations, we reverse and remand for a new trial.
I. BACKGROUND
Plaintiff and Defendant were involved in an accident in Washington County. Plaintiff was driving his motorcycle down a slightly sloped street when Defendant, not seeing Plaintiff, turned his truck left in front of Plaintiff. Plaintiff hit his brakes and skidded approximately forty-one feet. He then jumped off his motorcycle, which was still moving, and landed about twenty feet in front of Defendant's truck. The motorcycle continued to slide on its side and collided with the truck near the truck's rear tire . The motorcycle then slid an additional forty-eight feet. Plaintiff injured his arm as a result of the accident, and he sued Defendant to recover for his injuries and lost wages.
At one point during discovery, Defendant requested from Plaintiff medical bills, tax returns, and other documents and information. Ten months later, having not received some of the documents and information, Defendant filed a motion to compel discovery, which the trial court eventually granted. When Plaintiff still failed to produce the documents, the court awarded sanctions to Defendant, ordering Plaintiff and his counsel to pay Defendant the attorney fees incurred in bringing the motion.
Meanwhile, Defendant departed the state to serve a two-year term as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Church) in Pennsylvania. Consequently, Defendant was absent from trial. However, the attorneys deposed him prior to his departure, and Defendant's attorney submitted into evidence a videotaped copy of the deposition.
During jury selection proceedings, Plaintiff's attorney informed the judge: " ne of the issues has to do with the fact [Defendant] is on an LDS mission [i.e., a mission for the Church] and I wanted to ask the jury some questions as to whether they do have children on missions." Categorizing this proposed question as one about religious affiliation, the judge denied the request, stating that "religious affiliation has nothing to do with jury service." The judge put to the venire panel the following substitute question: "Would the fact that . . . the defendant is on a religious mission at the present time give you any problem in applying the facts in the law as you find it from the evidence in this case?" When all of the prospective jurors answered in the negative, the judge moved on to the next question.
During trial, Defendant proposed to call Officer Stacy Richan to testify as an expert witness regarding Plaintiff's precollision speed. Officer Richan was the police officer who had investigated the collision on the day it occurred, at which time he measured Plaintiff's motorcycle skid mark to be forty-one feet long. He had extensive training and experience in accident reconstruction, and although he had not been trained in motorcycle accident reconstruction at the time of the collision, he had since received some training in that area. He was prepared to testify that based on the length of the skid mark, Plaintiff must have been traveling between the speeds of 40.93 mph and 46.08 mph just prior to the collision. Plaintiff objected to the testimony, arguing that Officer Richan's calculation was based upon the unverifiable assumption that both motorcycle wheels--and not just
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