Juarez v. Superior Court

Opinion

MOSK, J.

In this personal injury action, where the principles of comparative negligence apply and the votes of only nine jurors are necessary to reach a verdict (Cal. Const., art. I, § 16; Code Civ. Proc., § 618), the question is whether a juror who has disagreed with the majority on the issue of negligence may nevertheless provide the ninth vote necessary to decide the issue of how to apportion the damages among the parties. We conclude that he may: neither precedent nor reason requires an exact correlation between the nine votes that fix liability and the nine votes that apportion…