Karahodzic v. JBS Carriers, Inc.

881 F.3d 1009

Edin KARAHODZIC, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Hasib Karahodzic, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.JBS CARRIERS, INC. and Christopher Thompson, Temporary Administrator of the Estate of Orentio Thompson, Defendants–Appellants.

No. 16-3931

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued October 24, 2017

Decided February 7, 2018

Frank J. Niesen, III, Attorney, Law Office of Frank J. Niesen, Jr., St. Louis, MO, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

William C. Brittan, Attorney, Campbell Killin Brittan & Ray, LLC, Denver, CO, John S. McCollough, Attorney, Lashly & Baer, P.C, St. Louis, MO, for Defendants–Appellants.

Before Easterbrook, Rovner, and Hamilton, Circuit Judges.

Rovner, Circuit Judge.

Hasib Karahodzic, a commercial truck driver for E.J.A. Trucking, Inc., was killed when his vehicle collided with a truck driven by Orentio Thompson, an employee of JBS Carriers, Inc.¹ A jury trial on the claims brought by Hasib's estate and by his son Edin, individually, resulted in a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. The defendants appeal and we affirm.

I.

In the early morning hours of March 17, 2012, Thompson was driving his tractor/trailer westbound on Interstate 70 when he noticed a malfunctioning light blinking on the side of his trailer. Just past the Brownstown, Illinois exit, he activated his right turn signal and pulled onto the shoulder of the highway. Once stopped, he turned on his four-way flashers and then walked around his truck to inspect the lights. He unplugged and then reattached the electrical connection between the tractor and the trailer. That resolved the errantly blinking light and he returned to the cab. With the four-way flashers still on, he had just reentered the right lane of the highway and was traveling between fifteen and eighteen miles an hour when Hasib crashed into the back of his trailer. Hasib had just come around a large curve in the road when he encountered Thompson's slow-moving truck. The impact from the crash killed Hasib instantly and set his truck on fire.

In a tragic coincidence, Hasib's son, Edin, who also drove for E.J.A. Trucking, was also driving westbound on Interstate 70 that morning. Shortly after the crash, Edin came upon the scene and saw that his father's truck was on fire. He parked in front of Thompson's truck and ran to help his father. He saw his father in the truck cab, and believing him to still be alive, attempted to pull him from the cab and put out the fire. Edin suffered burns to his hands and face from his unsuccessful attempt to rescue his father, and watched as his father's body burned. He called his brother Selvedin to tell him what had happened. Selvedin drove eighty miles to the scene of the accident and also saw his father's burned body. The brothers then drove home to tell their mother, Esma, and sister, Edina, what had happened.

Every member of the Karahodzic family suffered emotional trauma from Hasib's death. Esma's emotional reaction on hearing of her husband's death was so severe that she had to be taken to a hospital. As a result of Major Depressive Disorder brought on by Hasib's death, Esma never returned to work. Edin suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of his father's death and his failed attempt to rescue him. Hasib's daughter, Edina, attempted suicide at her father's grave near the first anniversary of his death. Selvedin, who is also a truck driver, had constant reminders of his father's death when he drove past the location of the accident once or twice a week. Family dynamics changed and relationships suffered as Hasib's family struggled to move forward after his death.

JBS Trucking initiated the litigation, suing Hasib's estate and E.J.A. Trucking to recover for the damage to JBS Trucking's trailer and its contents. E.J.A. Trucking counterclaimed against JBS Trucking for damage to E.J.A. Trucking's trailer and its contents. Edin, as personal representative of his father's estate, also counterclaimed against JBS Trucking and brought a third-party complaint against Thompson seeking damages for Esma, Selvedin, Edina and himself under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 ILCS 180/1 et seq. Edin also brought a claim in his individual capacity against JBS Trucking and Thompson under the Illinois rescue doctrine to recover for his injuries resulting from his attempt to rescue his father. In response to Edin's individual claim, the defendants each asserted a counterclaim against Hasib's estate pursuant to the Illinois Joint Tortfeasor Contribution Act, 740 ILCS 100/1 et seq. The parties settled some of the claims before trial, and certain claims were dismissed with prejudice as a result. The court then granted a joint motion to realign the parties so that court records would reflect that Edin Karahodzic, individually and Edin Karahodzic, as personal representative of the estate were now the plaintiffs and JBS Carriers and Thompson were now the defendants.

A nine-day jury trial resulted in a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs on both claims. On the wrongful death claim, the jury attributed fifty-five percent of the fault to Thompson and JBS Carriers, and forty-five percent to Hasib Karahodzic. The jury accordingly reduced its $5,000,000 damage award by forty-five percent, awarding the estate damages in the amount of $2,750,000. The jury awarded Edin Karahodzic $625,000 on his individual rescue doctrine claim. The defendants appeal.

II.

On appeal, the defendants first assert that the court committed reversible error in refusing to give an Illinois pattern jury instruction on the duty to mitigate damages, and in giving instructions related to "careful habits" and "exigent circumstances." The defendants also argue that the court should have apportioned the award given to Edin personally on his rescue doctrine claim by the same percentages that the jury used in setting the estate's damages on the wrongful death claim. The defendants further maintain that the court erred when it allowed the jury to award Esma's lost earnings as damages under the Wrongful Death Act. And finally, the defendants contend that they were denied a fair trial due to certain evidentiary rulings made by the trial court.²

A.

We consider first whether the trial court erred by refusing to give the Illinois pattern instruction on the plaintiffs' duty to mitigate damages. According to the defendants, Illinois Supreme Court Rule 239(a) dictates that the pattern instruction "shall be used" unless the court determines that it does not accurately state the law. The defendants contend that, by refusing to follow Rule 239(a), the trial court erroneously took from the jury the question of whether the Karahodzic family complied with their legal duty to mitigate their damages. The defendants also complain that they were "denied the opportunity to argue in closing" that the family had a duty to mitigate their damages and could not recover damages proximately caused by their failure to mitigate.

There are a number of problems with this argument. First, federal district courts sitting in diversity are bound by state substantive law but not by state court procedural rules. Erie R.R. v. Tompkins , 304 U.S. 64, 78–79, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938) ; Wallace v. McGlothan , 606 F.3d 410, 419 (7th Cir. 2010). The Illinois rule that mandates the use of Illinois pattern instructions is procedural, not substantive. Stollings v. Ryobi Techs., Inc. , 725 F.3d 753, 768–69 (7th Cir. 2013) (in a diversity action, we look to state law to determine whether the instruction properly stated the substantive law but federal law governs whether the instruction was sufficiently clear); Beul v. ASSE Int'l, Inc. , 233 F.3d 441, 449 (7th Cir. 2000) ("Rules of general applicability and purely managerial character governing the jury, such as the form in which a civil jury is instructed, are quintessentially procedural for purposes of the Erie rule."). In other words, "state law determines the content of jury instructions" and federal law governs "the manner in which instructions are requested and given." In re Air Crash Disaster Near Chicago, Ill. on May 25, 1979 , 701 F.2d 1189, 1199 (7th Cir. 1983). See also Stutzman v. CRST, Inc. , 997 F.2d 291, 293 (7th Cir. 1993) ("In a diversity case, federal law guides our review of jury instructions."). So state law governs whether the instructions were correct statements of Illinois law on the mitigation of damages, but the particular wording was within the discretion of the district court judge and our review is governed by federal standards. Ryobi , 725 F.3d at 768.

Under those federal standards, we review de novo whether the jury instructions stated the law correctly, affording the district court substantial discretion as to the precise wording of the instructions so long as the final result, read as a whole, completely and correctly states the law. Ryobi , 725 F.3d at 768. See also Paldo Sign & Display Co. v. Wagener Equities, Inc. , 825 F.3d 793, 796 (7th Cir. 2016) (we review jury instructions de novo to determine whether they fairly and accurately summarized the law). The trial court's decision to give a particular instruction is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. Paldo Sign , 825 F.3d at 796. We reverse only if the instructions, taken as a whole, misled the jury. Paldo Sign , 825 F.3d at 796 ; United States v. Curtis , 781 F.3d 904, 907 (7th Cir. 2015). Thus any argument that the court committed reversible error simply by refusing to follow Illinois Supreme Court Rule 239, a procedural rule, is foreclosed by the Erie doctrine.

The second problem with the defendants' argument is that the trial court did in fact instruct the jury on the issue of the duty to mitigate and there is nothing erroneous or misleading about the wording of the instructions given. Although the defendants failed to mention the mitigation instructions given by the court in their opening brief, and even failed, until the reply brief, to give us the supposedly...