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WHEN SUBSTITUTING AN ALTERNATE JUROR AFTER DELIBERATIONS HAVE BEGUN, THE JURY MUST BE INSTRUCTED TO START THE DELIBERATIONS OVER AND DISREGARD THE PRIOR DELIBERATIONS; THE OVER $14 MILLION PLAINTIFF’S VERDICT IN THIS TRAFFIC ACCIDENT CASE SHOULD HAVE BEEN SET ASIDE (SECOND DEPT). ​

The Second Department, reversing the over $14 million judgment and ordering a new trial on damages, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Barros, determined defendants’ motion to set aside the verdict in this traffic accident case should have been granted. An alternate juror was substituted after deliberations began. The jury should have been instructed to begin deliberations anew:

… [W]e address whether the 2013 amendments to CPLR 4106, which changed the statute to allow trial courts to substitute a regular juror with an alternate juror even after deliberations have begun, may be reconciled with the constitutional right to a trial by a six-member jury wherein each juror deliberates on all issues (see NY Const, art I, § 2 … ). We hold that to reconcile CPLR 4106 with the constitutional and statutory requirements for a civil jury verdict, the trial court must, upon substituting an alternate juror in place of a regular juror after deliberations have begun, provide an instruction to the jury directing them, inter alia, to restart their deliberations from the beginning with the substituted juror and disregard and set aside all prior deliberations. Under the circumstances of this case, the Supreme Court’s failure to give that instruction resulted in an invalid verdict which, among other things, deprived the defendants of their request to poll each of the jurors whose votes were counted as part of the verdict … , and their right to “a process in which each juror deliberates on all issues and attempts to influence with his or her individual judgment and persuasion the reasoning of the other five” … . Caldwell v New York City Tr. Auth., 2021 NY Slip Op 07537, Second Dept 12-29-21

 

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