Rule 49.Special Verdicts and Interrogatories

Rule 15-6-49 gives a court two ways to structure a jury’s fact-finding beyond a plain general verdict. The first is a special verdict: the court can require the jury to return only a written finding on each fact issue, through written questions, written forms of the possible findings, or another suitable method, and the court has to give the jury whatever explanation and instruction it needs to make those findings. If the court leaves out an issue the pleadings or evidence raised, each party waives a jury trial on that issue unless it demands the issue go to the jury before the jury retires. Left undemanded, the court can find on that issue itself, or, if it does not, is deemed to have found it consistent with the judgment on the special verdict.

The second option pairs a general verdict with written interrogatories on one or more fact issues that matter to the outcome. The court instructs the jury so it can both answer the interrogatories and return a general verdict, then directs it to do both. When the general verdict and the interrogatory answers agree, judgment is entered under Rule 15-6-58 in line with them. When the answers agree with each other but one conflicts with the general verdict, the court can enter judgment following the answers instead of the verdict, send the jury back for more deliberation, or order a new trial. And when the answers conflict with each other, with at least one also at odds with the general verdict, the court cannot enter judgment at all; it has to return the jury for further deliberation or order a new trial.