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Kaeo v. Davis5/14/1986
ruction concerning the matter . . . submitted as may be necessary to enable the jury to make its findings upon each issue" was followed here. Hawaii Rules of Civil Procedure (HRCP) 49(a). [68 Haw Page 459] Under the special verdict procedure contemplated by HRCP 49(a) "the jury makes findings of fact and the court applies the law." C. Wright and A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2503 (1971). But there has been no definitive answer to the problem of whether juries should be informed of the legal effects of their findings of fact, and the debates among courts and among commentators continue. Courts concluding it is error to inform jurors of the consequences of their findings have "reasoned that the sole purpose of the special verdict procedure is to insure objective jury findings, and that it would be inconsistent with this purpose for the jurors to know what the effect of their answers would be." C. Wright & A. Miller, supra, § 2509, at 511-12; see also McGowan v. Story, 70 Wis. 2d 189, 197, 234 N.W.2d 325, 329 (1975). Other courts, like the Supreme Court of Idaho, have chosen not to set juries "loose in a maze of factual questions, to be answered without intelligent awareness of the consequences." Seppi v. Betty, 99 Idaho 186, 192, 579 P.2d 683, 689 (1978) (quoting Porche v. Gulf Mississippi Marine Corp., 390 F. Supp. 624, 632 (E.D. La. 1975)). Much of the judicial discussion has taken place in contexts where the comparative negligence of plaintiffs and defendants has been the issue. The discussion, however, is pertinent in our consideration of a closely related problem, whether the jury should be informed of a possible legal consequence of its verdict apportioning negligence among joint tortfeasors.
B.
Wisconsin, an acknowledged pioneer in the area of comparative negligence, was also an early jurisdiction adopting a rule against "inform the jury expressly or by necessary implication of the effect of [a special verdict answer] upon the ultimate right of either party litigant to recover or upon the ultimate liability of either party litigant." Banderob v. Wisconsin Central Ry., 133 Wis. 249, 287, 113 N.W. 738, 751 (1907). The Supreme Court of Wisconsin in 1975 rationalized its continued adherence to the rule in these terms:
Under our system of jurisprudence, the jury is the finder of fact and it has no function in determining how the law should be applied to the facts found. It is not the function of a jury in a case between private parties on the determination of comparative negligence to be influenced by sympathy for either party, nor should it attempt to manipulate the apportionment of negligence to achieve a result that may seem socially desirable to a single juror or to a group of jurors.
McGowan v. Story, 70 Wis. 2d at 197, 234 N.W.2d at 329. Few would dare take issue with these sentiments.
Yet other courts have eschewed Wisconsin's "blindfold" rule, concluding "that, ordinarily, a jury informed of the legal effect of its findings as to percentages of negligence in a comparative negligence trial is better able to fulfill its fact finding function." Roman v. Mitchell, 82 N.J. 336, 346, 413 A.2d 322, 327 (1980). And, "a growing trend is for courts and legislatures to require that the jury be informed of the results of apportioning negligence under a special verdict." Rogers & Shaw, supra note 12, at 85 (footnote omitted); see Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) § 663-31(d).
These courts do not deny "' he [whole] thought behind the special verdict to free the jury from [anything] which wou
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