Final Jury Instructions—West Palm Beach car accident Automobile Accident
Instruction No. 1
(General instruction given after jurors sworn in and not repeated)
Instruction No. 2
As you remember, the court gave you a general instruction before the presentation of any evidence in this case. The court will not repeat that instruction at this time. However, that instruction and the additional instructions, to be given to you now, constitute the law of this case and each such instruction is equally binding upon you. You should consider each instruction in light of and in harmony with the other instructions, and you should apply the instructions as a whole to the evidence. The order in which the instructions are given is no indication of their relative importance. All of the instructions are in writing and will be available to you in the jury room.
Instruction No. 3
In returning your verdict you will form beliefs as to the facts. The court does not mean to assume as true any fact referred to in these instructions but leaves it to you to determine what the facts are.
Instruction No. 4
In these instructions, you are told that your verdict depends on whether or not you believe certain propositions of fact submitted to you. The burden is upon the party who relies upon any such proposition to cause you to believe that such proposition is more likely to be true than not true. In determining whether or not you believe any proposition, you must consider only the evidence and the reasonable inferences derived from the evidence. If the evidence in the case does not cause you to believe a particular proposition submitted, then you cannot return a verdict requiring belief of that proposition.
Instruction No. 5
The term “negligent” or “negligence” as used in these instructions means the failure to use that degree of care that a very careful person would use under the same or similar circumstances.
Instruction No. 6
The verdict form included in these instructions contains directions for completion and will allow you to return the permissible verdict in this case. Nine or more of you must agree in order to return any verdict. A verdict must be signed by each juror who agrees to it.
Instruction Number 7
In your verdict you must assess a percentage of fault to defendant Tom Smith, whether or not plaintiff Harry Host was partly at fault, if you believe:
First, defendant Tom Smith’s West Palm Beach car accident Automobile was on the wrong side of the road, and
Second, defendant Tom Smith was thereby negligent, and
Third, such negligence directly caused or directly contributed to cause damage to plaintiff Harry Host.
Instruction Number 8
In your verdict you must assess a percentage of fault to plaintiff Harry Host, whether or not defendant Tom Smith was partly at fault, if you believe:
First, plaintiff Harry Host failed to keep a careful lookout, and
Second, plaintiff Harry Host was thereby negligent, and
Third, such negligence directly caused or directly contributed to cause any damage plaintiff Harry Host may have sustained.
Instruction Number 9
If you assess a percentage of fault to defendant Tom Smith and if you believe that plaintiff Mary Host sustained damage as a direct result of injury to her husband Harry Host, then in your verdict you must find that plaintiff Mary Host did sustain such damage.
Instruction Number 10
If you assess a percentage of fault to defendant Tom Smith, then disregarding any fault on the part of plaintiff Harry Host, you must determine the total amount of plaintiff Harry Host’s damages on his claim for personal injury. If you further find that plaintiff Mary Host did sustain damage as a direct result of injury to her husband, Harry Host, you must determine the total amount of Mary Host’s damages on her claim for damages due to injury to her husband.
Total damages on each claim must be such sum as will fairly and justly compensate the plaintiff on that claim for any such damages you believe that plaintiff sustained, and is reasonably certain to sustain in the future, that the collision directly caused or directly contributed to cause. You must state separately in your verdict the total amount of each plaintiff’s damages on each claim.
In determining the total amount of each plaintiff’s damages, you must not reduce such damages by any percentage of fault you may assess to plaintiff Harry Host. The judge will compute the recovery of each plaintiff under the law and the percentages of fault you assess.
Verdict
Note: Complete the following paragraph by filling in the blanks as required by your verdict. If you assess a percentage of fault to any of those listed below, write in a percentage not greater than 100%; otherwise, write in “zero” next to that name. If you assess a percentage of fault to any of those listed below, the total of such percentages must be 100%.
We, the undersigned jurors, assess percentages of fault as follows:
Defendant Tom Smith __________ % (zero to 100%)
Plaintiff Harry Host __________ % (zero to 100%)
TOTAL __________ % (zero OR 100%)
Note: Complete the following paragraphs if you assessed a percentage of fault to defendant Tom Smith.
On the claim of plaintiff Harry Host for personal injury, we, the undersigned jurors, find the total amount of plaintiff Harry Host’s damages, disregarding any fault on the part of plaintiff Harry Host, to be $________ (stating the amount).
Note: Complete the following paragraph by writing the word(s) required by your verdict.
On the claim of plaintiff Mary Host, for damages due to injury to her husband Harry Host, we, the undersigned jurors, find that plaintiff Mary Host ______________, (“did” or “did not”) sustain damage as a direct result of injury to her husband, Harry Host.
Note: Complete the following paragraph only if the above finding is that plaintiff Mary Host “did” sustain such damage.
We, the undersigned jurors, find the total amount of plaintiff Mary Host’s damages due to injury to her husband, disregarding any fault on the part of plaintiff Harry Host, to be $___________ (stating the amount).
Note: The judge will compute the recovery of each plaintiff under the law and the percentage of fault you assess.

All jurors who agree to the above findings must sign below.

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