Gibson v. Denmo's Original Drive-In, LLC

Syllabus

The plaintiff appealed from the trial court's judgment for the defendant in her premises liability action. She claimed that the court abused its discretion in denying her motion to set aside the verdict because the court provided the jury with an incorrect version of interrogatories and the jury's use of those interrogatories precluded the jury from fully evaluating the essential elements of her cause of action. Held: The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the plaintiff's motion to set aside the verdict, as the version of the interrogatories submitted to the jury properly followed the evidence adduced at trial and were consistent with the pleadings, and the first interrogatory as to the plaintiff's burden of proof that the jury answered in the negative properly articulated an essential element of a premises liability claim and was properly dispositive of that claim, such that the erroneous submission of the interrogatories to the jury was harmless. Argued March 20—officially released May 27, 2025