Irish v. Gimbel

DANA, J.,

with whom CALKINS, J., joins, dissenting.

[¶ 10] I respectfully dissent. Despite our amplification regarding the extent of permissible neutral comment by the trial court in Irish I, the effective silencing of comment by counsel on a piece of evidence as weighty as the findings of a panel of experts impermissibly encroaches on a party’s right to a trial by jury recognized in the Maine Constitution. See Me. Const. art. I, § 20 (1819, amended 1988). Our recommended instructions in Irish I failed to cure this infirmity.

[¶ 11] As we noted in Irish I, the Maine Constitution guarantees a…