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State v. United States Steel Corp.6/24/1996
ck of a contract is subsumed within the overarching theory of the lack of any connection whatsoever. USX was entitled to articulate its theory of the case and emphasize the lack of any connection at all between itself and the state.
Moreover, in view of the fact that, at the time USX made its opening statements, the state had not yet withdrawn its claim of breach of warranties, to which the issue of privity was relevant, USX was entitled to assert in its opening statement that the state did not have a contract with USX and that the state was not in privity with USX. Additionally, we note that USX's comments during its opening statements did not constitute affirmative misstatements of the law that would carry the potential of misleading the jury; our holding regarding a trial court's refusal of an instruction in order to clarify or counteract the effect of such misleading comments would likely be different under such circumstances.
We therefore hold that the trial court did not err in refusing to give the state's proposed instruction regarding the lack of a privity of contract requirement associated with an HRS chapter 480 claim.
d. The Trial Court Did Not Err In Instructing the Jury That Sellers May Promote the Quality of Their Goods.
The state next asserts that the trial court erred in giving instruction no. 44, which provided that "sellers may promote the quality of their goods." The state contends that "the unqualified and unadorned blanket statement that "sellers may promote the quality of their goods' implies that there are no limits whatsoever to a seller's ability to promote the quality of its goods, including, for example, outright misrepresentation and deception, which are plainly not allowed." Instead, the state argues, the instruction should have contained some reference to "puffing" or general sales talk commending a seller's goods to convey to the jury that a seller's right to promote its goods is not unlimited.
USX retorts by stating that the instruction is a correct statement of the law and that, viewed in the full context of the other instructions read to the jury regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce, qualifications regarding "puffing" or sales talk would have been redundant and unnecessary. We agree.
The court read the following instruction to the jury:
The plaintiff, State of Hawaii, has the burden of providing by a preponderance of the evidence the following elements of its claim for unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of trade.
1. Unfair or deceptive acts or practices on the part of defendant U.S. Steel in the conduct of trade; and
2. Such acts or practices were the legal cause of harm or loss to the plaintiff's property.
A practice or act is unfair or deceptive when the practice or act is immoral, unethical, oppressive, or unscrupulous. Proof of negligent misrepresentation alone does not establish a claim for unfair or deceptive trade practice or acts.
A deceptive trade practice is a practice which has the capacity or tendency to mislead consumers. Sellers may promote the quality of their goods.
Read in isolation, the state's claim that the unqualified statement that "sellers may promote the quality of their goods" is prejudicial may have minimal merit; however, read in context, as the court must, see Craft, 78 Haw. at 302, 893 P.2d at 153, the instructions regarding a seller's ability to promote the quality of its goods was qualified by the court's other instructions regarding the state's HRS chapter
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