General Motors Corp. v. Wernsing

This appeal is concerned with an accommodating bailiff who, without the knowledge of the trial judge or trial counsel, supplied a dictionary to the jury, thus contaminating it. The judge declined to order a new trial as a result of the bailiffs pollution of the jury. The trial court did, however, reduce the verdict from $1,630, 284 to slightly less than half, $762,784. Obviously unsatisfied, the appellants, General Motors Corporation (GMC), Gladding Chevrolet, Inc., (Gladding), and Howard L. Seidel (Seidel) have appealed.

—THE FACTS—

On April 13, 1979, Violet Seidel, accompanied by her husband,…