Foster v. George Washington University Medical Center

I concur in the result reached by the court. However, in my opinion, the error requiring reversal includes not only the trial court’s decision to return the jury’s note without determining its contents, but also its failure to respond adequately to the jury’s earlier inquiry as to what to do if they determined that Foster did not make reasonable efforts to mitigate her damages. The original mitigation instruction had failed to inform the jury what effect a factual finding of a failure to mitigate should have on their verdict. In response to the note, the court simply instructed the jury only…