{"id":900187,"date":"2022-07-27T15:41:04","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T21:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=900187"},"modified":"2022-07-27T15:41:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T21:41:12","slug":"jury-trial-a-covid-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/jury-trial-a-covid-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury Trials: A COVID Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Joshua Lane | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acslawyers.com\/uncategorized\/jury-trials-a-covid-update\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Ahlers Cressman &amp; Sleight<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Budd v. Kaiser Gypsum Co., Inc.<\/em>,\u00a0\u2014 Wn. App. 2d \u2013, 505 P.3d 120 (Wash. Ct. App. 2022). (1) Courts must ensure that juries are randomly selected to provide a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/dispute-resolution-when-claim-occurred\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fair and impartial jury<\/a>. (2) While the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit the systematic exclusion of distinctive groups from jury pools, Washington Courts\u2019 COVID-19 policy to excuse people who were ages 60 and older and did not wish to report for duty was not a \u201csystematic\u201d exclusion.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raymond&nbsp;Budd&nbsp;developed mesothelioma after working with a drywall product called \u201cjoint compound\u201d from 1962 to 1972.&nbsp; He sued&nbsp;Kaiser&nbsp;Gypsum&nbsp;Company, Inc. and others for damages, contending that the&nbsp;company\u2019s&nbsp;joint compound caused his illness.&nbsp;A jury returned a verdict in&nbsp;Budd\u2019s&nbsp;favor and awarded him nearly $13.5 million.&nbsp;Kaiser&nbsp;appeals, claiming (1) insufficient randomness in the jury-selection process, (2) erroneous transcription of expert testimony, (3) lack of proximate causation, (4) lack of medical causation, (5) an improper jury instruction on defective design, (6) improper exclusion of sexual battery and marital discord evidence, (7) improper admission of post-exposure evidence, (8) improper exclusion of regulatory provisions, and (9) a failure to link its product to&nbsp;Budd\u2019s&nbsp;disease. The Court of Appeals, Division 1, affirmed the verdict in favor of Budd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though all of the nine bases for error raised by Kaiser merit discussion, the jury-selection process issue is most probative here.&nbsp; Kaiser made three challenges against the jury selection process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, Kaiser challenged the jury selection process as being insufficiently random because the jury services department mailed summonses to those who had deferred service before.&nbsp; Pursuant to the trial court\u2019s records, the court explained that the jury services department mailed summonses to over 1,000 potential jurors; that the potential jurors were those who had had their service deferred before, each summons requested that the recipient contact the court by e-mail, by phone, or in person; that of those potential jurors, about 183 responded by e-mail; that the jury services department then sent questionnaires to those 183 people by e-mail; that about 77 people responded to the questionnaire; and that those people were placed on the jury list in random order. The Court of Appeals affirmed that \u201cthere can be numerous reasons why a juror defers service; Kaiser offers no information to suggest that the pool of over 1,000 people was less random than a venire another process would yield nor does it cite authority supporting such a contention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, Kaiser argue that the jury pool was not sufficiently random because the jury services department sent questionnaires only to those for whom it had e-mail addresses. The Court of Appeals found that the trial court\u2019s comments make clear that those were the potential jurors who had responded to the mailed summons, and the record does not suggest that any potential jurors responded through another mode of communication. In other words, \u201cthe jury services department did not unilaterally decide to contact only potential jurors with e-mail addresses.\u201d Although Kaiser argued that only a trial court, not the jury services department, has the power to excuse jurors for cause, the Court of Appeals noted that \u201cthe jury services department did not excuse jurors for cause; it sent summonses to potential jurors who had deferred service before and then sent questionnaires to potential jurors who responded to the summons.\u201d Because Kaiser provided no authority supporting its contention that this rendered the jury selection process insufficiently random, the Court of Appeals was not persuaded by this argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, Kaiser argued that the jury selection process was invalid because it \u201cconstructively\u201d excluded a cognizable class of individuals: people ages 60 and older. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington Courts suspended jury trials in early 2020. When jury trials resumed, the presiding King County Superior Court judge sent a memorandum to bar associations saying that jurors could be excused from jury duty if they are \u201cage 60 or older and [ ] do not wish to report for jury duty.\u201d A Supreme Court order about modification of jury trial proceedings similarly stated, \u201cAny process for summoning potential jurors must include the ability to defer jury service by those who are at higher risk from COVID-19 based on their age or existing health conditions.\u201d The court continued, \u201c[h]owever, no identified group may be per se excused from jury service on this basis.\u201d This policy was implemented via the questionnaire the jury services department distributed. The Court of Appeals held that to be unconstitutional, the exclusion must be \u201csystematic,\u201d noting that Kaiser cited no law that \u201cconstructive\u201d exclusion is sufficient. Citing&nbsp;<em>State v. Clark<\/em>, 167 Wn. App. 667, 674, 274 P.3d 1058 (2012),&nbsp;<em>aff\u2019d<\/em>, 178 Wn.2d 19, 308 P.3d 590 (2013). The Court of Appeals found that because the policy&nbsp;<em>allowed<\/em>&nbsp;for jurors to be excused if they were 60 years or older&nbsp;<em>and<\/em>&nbsp;did not wish to report for duty, this \u201cdid not automatically exclude every person 60 years and older.\u201d The Court of Appeals, concluded that the trial court acted within its discretion in rejecting Kaiser\u2019s challenges to the jury selection process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Commentary: The COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns about due process. However, the policies enacted by the Courts to navigate these waters have been generally upheld on appeal and are unlikely to be constitute procedural grounds for parties to avoid unfavorable rulings.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joshua Lane | Ahlers Cressman &amp; Sleight Budd v. Kaiser Gypsum Co., Inc.,\u00a0\u2014 Wn. App. 2d \u2013, 505 P.3d 120 (Wash. Ct. App. 2022). (1) Courts must ensure that juries are randomly selected to provide a fair and impartial jury. (2) While the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit the systematic exclusion of distinctive groups from&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/jury-trial-a-covid-update\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Jury Trials: A COVID Update<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[172],"tags":[9895,11728,345,35],"class_list":["post-900187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-law-2","tag-advise-consult","tag-joint-compound","tag-jury-trial","tag-mesothelioma","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jury Trials: A COVID Update - Advise &amp; 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