Ogden v. CDI Corporation
Filing
144
ORDER denying 143 Plaintiff's Motion for relief from order. Signed by Judge David G Campbell on 4/22/11.(LSP)
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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA
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Martin Ogden,
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Plaintiff,
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vs.
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CDI Corporation,
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Defendant.
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No. CV08-2180 PHX DGC
ORDER
Plaintiff Martin Ogden has filed a motion for relief from judgment. Doc. 143. The
Court will deny the motion.
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Plaintiff cites statements allegedly made by jurors in the hallway after his trial as
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evidence that the jurors lacked “the cognitive aptitude” to understand the issues in this case
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and “violated their oath” by failing to base their decision on evidence presented during the
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trial. Id. at 4. The statements quoted by Plaintiff do not suggest that there was extraneous
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information considered by the jury, that there was any outside influence brought to bear on
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the jury, or that the jurors’ verdict was incorrectly recorded. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 606(b). The
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statements instead purport to reflect the jurors’ thinking in arriving at their defense verdict.
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Statements concerning the thoughts and deliberations of jurors cannot be considered
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by the Court in granting relief from the verdict. “Rule 606(b) of the Federal Rules of
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Evidence makes clear . . . that jurors may not be asked to ‘testify as to any matter or
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statement occurring during the course of the jury’s deliberation or to the effect of anything
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upon that or any other juror’s mind or emotions as influencing the juror to assent to or dissent
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from the verdict[.]’” Wilson v. Maricopa County, No. CV-04-2873-PHX-DGC, 2007 WL
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1992091 at *4 (D. Ariz. July 5, 2007). This rule draws “a dividing line between inquiry into
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the thought processes of the jurors on the one hand, and inquiry into the existence of
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conditions or the occurrence of events calculated to exert an improper influence on the
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verdict, on the other.” Vol. 3, J. Weinstein & M. Berger, Weinstein’s Federal Evidence,
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§ 606.04[1][a] (Matthew Bender 2d ed.2008). Because Plaintiff’s motion focuses solely on
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the thought processes of the jurors, it will be denied.
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IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff’s motion for relief from order (Doc. 143) is denied.
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DATED this 22nd day of April, 2011.
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