*1011 Opinion
Petitioner seeks a writ of mandate directing respondent court to vacate its order declaring a mistrial and to enter judgment on the verdict reached by the jury, and in the alternative, a writ of prohibition to prevent respondent from proceeding with a new trial of the action.
Petitioner United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, is the defendant in an action for personal injuries pending in the superior court; real party in interest, Jose Homen, is the plaintiff. Petitioner alleges that Merced County Superior Court action No. 48804 was tried before a jury beginning March 4, 1980, and on March 13, 1980, the jury returned a verdict finding that the negligence óf both plaintiff and defendant had proximately caused plaintiff’s injuries. The jury found that plaintiff was 90 percent at fault and defendant 10 percent at fault, and determined the total damages to be $70,000.
The jury was polled at defendant’s request; the results of the poll showed that nine jurors found that defendant’s negligence contributed to plaintiff’s injury, nine jurors found plaintiff’s negligence contributed to his injury, all jurors agreed that plaintiff suffered $70,000 in damages, and eleven jurors concurred in the 90-10 percent apportionment. The identical nine jurors did not find both plaintiff and defendant negligent; of the eleven who voted to apportion 90 percent of the fault to plaintiff and 10 percent to defendant, two had found previously that defendant was not negligent and three had found previously that plaintiff’s negligence had not contributed to the injury. This is the pattern of voting:
jury poll
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 m 11 12 Was defendant negligent? X X X X no no x X X no X X Was defendant’s negligence the proximate cause? X X X X no no X X X no X X Was plaintiff negligent? X X no X X X X X X X X X Was plaintiffs negligence the proximate cause? X X no *X X X X no no x X X What is amount of plaintiffs damages? Answer—$70,000 X X X X X X X X X X X X What percentage of negligence is attributed to defendant and to plaintiff? Defendant—10% Plaintiff—90% X X X X no x X x X X X X (x = ANSWER yes)
*1012 Nine jurors found defendant negligent; the same nine found that defendant’s negligence was a proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries, that damages in an amount of $70,000 were proper and also attributed 10 percent fault to defendant. In other words, nine identical jurors decided defendant was negligent and should pay damages of $7,000. This was the essence of the verdict in its final form.
Eleven jurors found plaintiff negligent and nine of the eleven found that plaintiff’s negligence was a proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries; the same nine jurors found $70,000 damages and nine jurors, including eight of the jurors concurring in findings 3, 4 and. 5, found plaintiff 90 percent negligent. The one juror not agreeing with the 90. percent apportionment had previously found defendant not negligent and plaintiff negligent.
The court, in chambers, expressed doubt whether the verdict was valid in light of the results of the jury poll. This discussion occurred after the jury was excused. No request was made by either counsel to send the jury for further deliberation, and the court did not do so on its own motion.
The court suggested that the parties stipulate to delay entry of judgment pending determination of the question of the validity of the verdict, and requested that briefs be filed discussing the issue. Both counsel agreed to the stipulation and submitted briefs. Defendant argued (1) that the verdict was valid, and (2) that, if the verdict were defective, any such defect was waived.
On March 26, 1980, a mistrial was declared by the trial court by order finding that the verdict was invalid, and citing
Borns
v.
Butts
(1979)
While no appeal lies from an order granting a mistrial
(Heavy Duty Truck Leasing, Inc.
v.
Superior Court
(1970)
Petitioner contends (1) that the jury’s verdict was valid although nine identical jurors did not agree on each special verdict, and (2), if the verdict were defective, any inconsistency was waived by respondent’s failure to request that the verdict be corrected or the jury be sent back for further deliberations. We agree with both contentions.
In
Borns
v.
Butts, supra,
The jury in the
Borns
case was polled, and when it appeared that only seven of the jurors voted for all four verdicts, the defendant moved for a mistrial. The trial court refused to declare a mistrial or to send the jury back to deliberate further, and entered judgment on the verdict. The Court of Appeal reversed, saying in a brief opinion: “By entering a verdict when the same nine jurors had not agreed on each special verdict, the court erred.
(Earl
v.
Times-Mirror Co.
(1921)
“Respondent’s contention that the error was harmless in light of the juror’s voting pattern is rejected for two reasons. First, no ‘legal verdict’ existed below; thus, prejudice is inherent in the entry of an invalid verdict and judgment. (See
Schoenbach
v.
Key System Transit Lines, supra,
After careful examination of the California authorities cited in Borns, we are not persuaded that binding precedent requires that the same jurors agree on the questions of defendant’s and plaintiff’s negligence and the allocation of fault in comparative negligence cases or that such a rule is desirable. Accordingly, we decline to follow Borns and hold, for the reasons discussed below, that the jury’s verdict was valid and should have been accepted by the trial court.
The Borns court relied exclusively upon one California Supreme Court case decided in 1921 and two Court of Appeal cases decided in 1938 and 1959, respectively; both Court of Appeal cases relied on the 1921 Supreme Court case; all were decided before comparative negligence principles were adopted in California. None of the three cases addressed the issue of identity of jurors for special verdicts in comparative negligence cases and we submit that all are distinguishable.
In
Earl
v.
Times-Mirror Co.
(1921)
The Earl case does not address the question we have before us. In the present case all 12 jurors agreed that the damages should be $70,000 and 11 of those 12 jurors agreed that the amount should be apportioned in a 90-10 percent fashion. The one juror not approving the percentage allocations had voted that defendant was not negligent; he was apparently consistent in his voting pattern and inferentially was unwilling to apportion even a 10 percent liability to defendant.
*1015
The holding of the court in
Earl,
as explained in the critical dissent, was that even though the opinion mentions “two verdicts,” in fact there was one verdict and because nine jurors must approve and had not approved the total amount of damages awarded, $25,000 plus $5,000 punitive damages or $30,000, the verdict for punitive damages was void.
(Earl
v.
Times-Mirror Co., supra,
We note that in California special verdicts are not required in comparative negligence cases. In
Li
v.
Yellow Cab Co.
(1975)
In
Nelson
v.
Superior Court, supra,
The court in
Nelson
stated that there was no previous ruling in California upon the precise question and cited only one California case, the holding in
Earl
v.
Times-Mirror Co., supra,
The petitioner in Nelson urged that section 618 of the Code of Civil Procedure, providing that when the jury is polled, “[I]f.. .more than one-fourth of the jurors disagree thereto, the jury must be sent out again, but if no such disagreement be expressed, the verdict is complete and the jury discharged from the case,” supported the validity of the verdicts because not more than one-fourth of the jury did disagree. (Nelson v. Superior Court, supra, 26 Cal.App.2d 119, 122-123.)
The Nelson court stated that the Supreme Court in the Earl case, while aware of the code section, held that no judgment could be entered in that case because only seven of the nine jurors who returned the general verdict for compensatory damages concurred in the verdict awarding punitive damages. (Nelson v. Superior Court, supra, 26 Cal.App.2d 119, 123.) Again, this is not the issue in this comparative negligence case.
In
Schoenbach
v.
Key System Transit Lines
(1959)
The
Schoenbach
case cited
Earl
v.
Times-Mirror, supra, Nelson
v.
Superior Court, supra,
and also cited
Balero
v.
Littell
(1932)
*1017 Petitioner argues that the principles first set out in the Earl case do not reasonably apply in comparative negligence cases, that it is unnecessary to require that the same nine jurors who find the defendant negligent find the plaintiff negligent, that these findings are not dependent on each other, that a finding of plaintiff’s negligence is not a prerequisite to assigning liability to defendant and vice versa. We agree.
In comments to BAJI Nos. 15.50 and 15.51, Supplement Service pamphlet No. 1 (1980), only one case,
Borns
v.
Butts, supra,
In the use note to BAJI No. 15.55 (6th ed. 1977), concerning a bifurcated trial, the following is stated: “In a non-bifurcated jury trial, it has been held that if nine or more jurors agree that plaintiff is entitled to recover, at least nine of these same jurors must agree upon the issue of damages. [Here, the Schoenbach case is cited.]
“It is uncertain whether the same rule applies in case of a bifurcated jury trial. If the trial judge believes that the said rule does apply, then give the instruction with the bracketed material. If the trial judge believes the rule does not apply, then strike out the bracketed material.
*1018 “In any event, it is suggested that a stipulation be obtained, if possible, prior to bifurcation to the effect that the entire panel of jurors may pass on the issue of damages, including those who voted against liability.
“This instruction presupposes that the same jury will pass on the issue of damages. If a different jury is used, the instruction will require revision.”
California trial courts can and do proceed in bifurcated trials with no requirement that only the jurors who find liability in the first phase of the trial may participate in the second phase to find damages. (See Little v.
Superior Court
(1961)
Under
Li
v.
Yellow Cab Co., supra,
The
Borns
case, relying on
Earl
v.
Times-Mirror, supra,
appears to hold that the questions of plaintiff’s and defendant’s negligence and the proportion they bear to each other are intimately connected, and a change of view by a juror on one issue will necessarily affect his assessment of the other issues. (Borns v.
Butts, supra,
In no case cited in Borns was the court confronted with this question —is it necessary in order to apportion damages validly between parties, each found by three-fourths of the jury to have contributed to the injury, for nine identical jurors to agree that both parties were negligent and that the negligence of each proximately contributed to the injury?
We hold that to find liability, the same nine jurors who find negligence on the part of a party must also find that negligence to be a proximate cause of the injury (see Cal. Tort Guide (Cont.Ed. Bar, 2d ed. 1979) § 1.2, p. 2, § 1.10, pp. 10-11), but, it is not. required that nine identical jurors find both plaintiff and defendant negligent. Jurors not concurring in a finding agreed to by three-fourths of the jury are not told to discontinue participating, drop out of negotiations, leave the room, not listen, or refrain from speaking during discussions. (See
Fields
v.
Volkswagen of America, Inc.
(Okla. 1976)
In
Naumburg
v.
Wagner
(1970)
In
Tillman
v.
Thomas
(1978)
In
Forde
v.
Ames
(1978)
“Our system of justice revolves around our reliance on the wisdom of juries.” (Fields v.
Volkswagen of America, Inc., supra,
We decide that under the circumstances in this case it is not fatal to the verdict that the same nine jurors did not find both defendant and plaintiff negligent as long as nine jurors did so find, and that the award of damages was properly determined.
Finally, addressing petitioner’s second issue, we find that even if the law on the identity of jurors were as urged by real party, the verdict in this case must be accepted. Under Code of Civil Procedure sections 618
2
and 619
3
the proper procedure when an apparently insufficient verdict is returned is to send the jury back for further deliberation. The California Supreme Court in
Henrioulle
v.
Marin Ventures, Inc., supra,
Contrary to the trial court’s statement in the order declaring a mistrial, any defect had to be apparent at the time the jury was polled, as the polling chart clearly shows and as counsel for real party conceded at oral argument. It was the effect of the voting pattern that was not immediately considered or understood.
Furthermore, had counsel requested that the jury be returned for further deliberation, the court could have sent the jurors home at 12:30 a.m. with instructions to return the next court day; it was not necessary that deliberations continue after midnight. As in Henrioulle, supra, any *1022 defect could have been cured with further deliberation; counsel’s failure to request such action constituted waiver and it was error for the trial court to declare a mistrial.
Let a writ of mandate issue directing respondent court to vacate its order of March 26, 1980, case number 48804, declaring a mistrial, to enter judgment upon the verdict as returned by the jury, and thereafter to proceed as prescribed by law.
The petition for writ of prohibition is denied. (See
Heavy Duty Truck Leasing, Inc.
v.
Superior Court, supra,
Zenovich, Acting P. J., and Conn, J., * concurred.
Notes
Code of Civil Procedure section 618 provides: “When the jury, or three-fourths of them, have agreed upon a verdict, they must be conducted into court and the verdict rendered by their foreman. The verdict must be in writing, signed by the foreman, and must be read to the jury by the clerk, or by the court, if there be no clerk, and the inquiry made whether it is their verdict. Either party may require the jury to be polled, which is done by the court or clerk, asking each juror if it is his verdict. If upon such inquiry or polling, more than one-fourth of the jurors disagree thereto, the jury must be sent out again, but if no such disagreement be expressed, the verdict is complete and the jury discharged from the case.”
See footnote 1, ante.
Code of Civil Procedure section 619 provides: “When the verdict is announced, if it is informal or insufficient, in not covering the issue submitted, it may be corrected by the jury under the advice of the Court, or the jury may be again sent out.”
Assigned by the Chairperson of the Judicial Council.
