Campbell v. Feld Entertainment, Inc et al

Filing 294

PRELIMINARY JURY INSTRUCTIONS. Signed by Judge Lucy H. Koh on 1/30/2015. (lhklc3, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 1/30/2015)

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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United States District Court
For the Northern District of California

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SAN JOSE DIVISION

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SHANNON CAMPBELL,

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Plaintiff,
v.
FELD ENTERTAINMENT, INC., and
MICHAEL STUART,

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Defendants.

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MARK ENNIS,
Plaintiff,
v.
FELD ENTERTAINMENT, INC., and
MICHAEL STUART,
Defendants.

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Case Nos.: 12-CV-04233-LHK
13-CV-00233-LHK
PRELIMINARY JURY
INSTRUCTIONS

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Dated: January 30, 2015

_______________________________
LUCY H. KOH
United States District Judge

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Case Nos.: 12-CV-04233-LHK; 13-CV-00233-LHK
PRELIMINARY JURY INSTRUCTIONS

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United States District Court
For the Northern District of California

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1. DUTY OF JURY
Ladies and gentlemen: You are now the jury in this case. It is my duty to instruct you on the law.
These instructions are preliminary instructions to help you understand the principles that apply to
civil trials and to help you understand the evidence as you listen to it. You will be allowed to keep
this set throughout the trial for your reference. This set of instructions is not to be taken home and
must remain in the jury room when you leave in the evenings. At the end of the trial, I will give
you a final set of instructions. It is the final set of instructions which will govern your
deliberations.
You must not infer from these instructions or from anything I may say or do as indicating that I
have an opinion regarding the evidence or what your verdict should be.
It is your duty to find the facts from all the evidence in the case. To those facts you will apply the
law as I give it to you. You must follow the law as I give it to you whether you agree with it or
not. And you must not be influenced by any personal likes or dislikes, opinions, prejudices, or
sympathy. That means that you must decide the case solely on the evidence before you. You will
recall that you took an oath to do so.

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In following my instructions, you must follow all of them and not single out some and ignore
others; they are all important.

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Case Nos.: 12-CV-04233-LHK; 13-CV-00233-LHK
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2. CLAIMS AND DEFENSES
To help you follow the evidence, I will give you a brief summary of the positions of the parties:
The plaintiffs are animal rights activists who demonstrate against and videotape the treatment of
circus animals. Plaintiffs’ claims against Feld Entertainment, Inc. (“FEI”), which owns and
operates the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and Michael Stuart (“Stuart”), FEI’s
director of circus operations, arise from two incidents.
First, on August 7, 2012, while circus animals were being walked from a nearby train to the
Oakland arena, Plaintiffs allege that they were unlawfully harassed, assaulted, and battered by FEI
employees.

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For the Northern District of California

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Second, on August 18, 2012, plaintiff Ennis claims that he was unlawfully harassed and battered by
an FEI employee while he was standing outside the San Jose arena videotaping circus animals.
Plaintiffs have the burden of proving their claims by a preponderance of the evidence.
The defendants, FEI and Stuart, deny that they or any FEI employee acted unlawfully towards
Plaintiffs at either the Oakland 2012 or San Jose 2012 incident. To the extent any FEI employees
may have come into physical contact with Plaintiffs at either incident, the contact was incidental
and not unreasonable, Plaintiffs invited the contact, or FEI and/or Stuart cannot be held responsible
for the contact.

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3. BURDEN OF PROOF—PREPONDERANCE OF THE EVIDENCE

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When a party has the burden of proof on any claim by a preponderance of the evidence, it means
you must be persuaded by the evidence that the claim is more probably true than not true.

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You should base your decision on all of the evidence, regardless of which party presented it.

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4. BURDEN OF PROOF—CLEAR AND CONVINCING EVIDENCE

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When a party has the burden of proving any claim or defense by clear and convincing evidence, it
means you must be persuaded by the evidence that the claim or defense is highly probable. This is
a higher standard of proof than proof by a preponderance of the evidence.

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You should base your decision on all of the evidence, regardless of which party presented it.
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5. TWO OR MORE PARTIES—DIFFERENT LEGAL RIGHTS
You should decide the case as to each party separately. Unless otherwise stated, the instructions
apply to all parties.

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6. WHAT IS EVIDENCE

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The evidence you are to consider in deciding what the facts are consists of:

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(1) the sworn testimony of any witness;

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(2) the exhibits which are received in evidence; and

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(3) any facts to which the lawyers have agreed.

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7. WHAT IS NOT EVIDENCE

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In reaching your verdict, you may consider only the testimony and exhibits received into evidence.
Certain things are not evidence, and you may not consider them in deciding what the facts are. I
will list them for you:

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(1) Arguments and statements by lawyers are not evidence. The lawyers are not
witnesses. What they will say in their opening statements, will say in their closing
arguments, and at other times is intended to help you interpret the evidence, but it is
not evidence. If the facts as you remember them differ from the way the lawyers
have stated them, your memory of them controls.
(2) Questions and objections by lawyers are not evidence. Attorneys have a duty to
their clients to object when they believe a question is improper under the rules of
evidence. You should not be influenced by the objection or by the court’s ruling on
it.
(3) Testimony that has been excluded or stricken, or that you have been instructed to
disregard, is not evidence and must not be considered. In addition sometimes
testimony and exhibits are received only for a limited purpose; when I give a
limiting instruction, you must follow it.
(4) Anything you may have seen or heard when the court was not in session is not
evidence. You are to decide the case solely on the evidence received at the trial.

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8. DIRECT OR CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
Evidence may be direct or circumstantial. Direct evidence is direct proof of a fact, such as
testimony by a witness about what that witness personally saw or heard or did. Circumstantial
evidence is proof of one or more facts from which you could find another fact. You should
consider both kinds of evidence. The law makes no distinction between the weight to be given to
either direct or circumstantial evidence. It is for you to decide how much weight to give to any
evidence.

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9. RULING ON OBJECTIONS

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There are rules of evidence that control what can be received into evidence. When a lawyer asks a
question or offers an exhibit into evidence and a lawyer on the other side thinks that it is not
permitted by the rules of evidence, that lawyer may object. If I overrule the objection, the question
may be answered or the exhibit received. If I sustain the objection, the question cannot be
answered, and the exhibit cannot be received. Whenever I sustain an objection to a question, you
must ignore the question and must not guess what the answer might have been.

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Sometimes I may order that evidence be stricken from the record and that you disregard or ignore
the evidence. That means that when you are deciding the case, you must not consider the evidence
that I told you to disregard.

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10. CREDIBILITY OF WITNESSES
In deciding the facts in this case, you may have to decide which testimony to believe and which
testimony not to believe. You may believe everything a witness says, or part of it, or none of it.
Proof of a fact does not necessarily depend on the number of witnesses who testify about it.

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In considering the testimony of any witness, you may take into account:
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(1) the opportunity and ability of the witness to see or hear or know the things testified
to;

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(2) the witness’s memory;

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(3) the witness’s manner while testifying;

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(4) the witness’s interest in the outcome of the case and any bias or prejudice;

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(5) whether other evidence contradicted the witness’s testimony;

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(6) the reasonableness of the witness’s testimony in light of all the evidence; and

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(7) any other factors that bear on believability.

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The weight of the evidence as to a fact does not necessarily depend on the number of witnesses
who testify about it.

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11. CONDUCT OF THE JURY
I will now say a few words about your conduct as jurors.
First, keep an open mind throughout the trial, and do not decide what the verdict should be until
you and your fellow jurors have completed your deliberations at the end of the case.
Second, because you must decide this case based only on the evidence received in the case and on
my instructions as to the law that applies, you must not be exposed to any other information about
the case or to the issues it involves during the course of your jury duty. Thus, until the end of the
case or unless I tell you otherwise:
Do not communicate with anyone in any way and do not let anyone else
communicate with you in any way about the merits of the case or anything to do
with it. This includes discussing the case in person, in writing, by phone or
electronic means, via e-mail, text messaging, or any Internet chat room, blog,
website or other feature. This applies to communicating with your fellow jurors
until I give you the case for deliberation, and it applies to communicating with
everyone else including your family members, your employer, the media or press,
and the people involved in the trial, although you may notify your family and your
employer that you have been seated as a juror in the case. But, if you are asked or
approached in any way about your jury service or anything about this case, you
must respond that you have been ordered not to discuss the matter and to report the
contact to the court.
Because you will receive all the evidence and legal instruction you properly may
consider to return a verdict: do not read, watch, or listen to any news or media
accounts or commentary about the case or anything to do with it; do not do any
research, such as consulting dictionaries, searching the Internet or using other
reference materials; and do not make any investigation or in any other way try to
learn about the case on your own.
The law requires these restrictions to ensure the parties have a fair trial based on the same evidence
that each party has had an opportunity to address. A juror who violates these restrictions
jeopardizes the fairness of these proceedings, and a mistrial could result that would require the
entire process to start over. If any juror is exposed to any outside information, please notify the
court immediately.

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12. NO TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE TO JURY
During deliberations, you will have to make your decision based on what you recall of the
evidence. You will not have a transcript of the trial. I urge you to pay close attention to the
testimony as it is given.

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If at any time you cannot hear or see the testimony, evidence, questions or arguments, let me know
so that I can correct the problem.

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13. TAKING NOTES
If you wish, you may take notes to help you remember the evidence. If you do take notes, please
keep them to yourself until you and your fellow jurors go to the jury room to decide the case. Do
not let note-taking distract you. When you leave, your notes should be left in the jury room. No
one will read your notes. They will be destroyed at the conclusion of the case.
Whether or not you take notes, you should rely on your own memory of the evidence. Notes are
only to assist your memory. You should not be overly influenced by your notes or those of your
fellow jurors.

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14. BENCH CONFERENCES AND RECESSES

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From time to time during the trial, it may become necessary for me to talk with the attorneys out of
the hearing of the jury, either by having a conference at the bench when the jury is present in the
courtroom, or by calling a recess. Please understand that while you are waiting, we are working.
The purpose of these conferences is not to keep relevant information from you, but to decide how
certain evidence is to be treated under the rules of evidence and to avoid confusion and error.
Of course, we will do what we can to keep the number and length of these conferences to a
minimum. I may not always grant an attorney’s request for a conference. Do not consider my
granting or denying a request for a conference as any indication of my opinion of the case or of
what your verdict should be.

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15. DEPOSITION IN LIEU OF LIVE TESTIMONY
A deposition is the sworn testimony of a witness taken before trial. The witness is placed under
oath to tell the truth and lawyers for each party may ask questions. The questions and answers are
recorded.

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When a person is unavailable to testify at trial, the deposition of that person may be used at the
trial. You should consider deposition testimony, presented to you in court in lieu of live testimony,
insofar as possible, in the same way as if the witness had been present to testify.
Do not place any significance on the behavior or tone of voice of any person reading the questions
or answers.

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16. USE OF INTERROGATORIES OF A PARTY

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Evidence may be presented to you in the form of answers of one of the parties to written
interrogatories submitted by the other side. These answers were given in writing and under oath,
before the actual trial, in response to questions that were submitted in writing under established
court procedures. You should consider the answers, insofar as possible, in the same way as if they
were made from the witness stand.

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17. EVIDENCE IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT
Exhibits capable of being displayed electronically will be provided to you in that form, and you
will be able to view them in the jury room. Equipment to view the exhibits will be available to you
in the jury room.
A court technician will show you how to operate the equipment and how to locate and view the
exhibits. You will also be provided with a list of all exhibits received in evidence. (Alternatively,
you may request a paper copy of an exhibit received in evidence by sending a note through the
bailiff.) If you need additional equipment or supplies, you may make a request by sending a note.
In the event of any technical problem, or if you have questions about how to operate the
equipment, you may send a note to the bailiff, signed by your foreperson or by one or more
members of the jury. Be as brief as possible in describing the problem and do not refer to or
discuss any exhibit you were attempting to view.
If a technical problem or question requires hands-on maintenance or instruction, a court technician
may enter the jury room with the courtroom deputy present for the sole purpose of assuring that the
only matter that is discussed is the technical problem. When the court technician or any non-juror
is in the jury room, the jury shall not deliberate. No juror may say anything to the court technician
or any non-juror other than to describe the technical problem or to seek information about
operation of equipment. Do not discuss any exhibit or any aspect of the case.
The sole purpose of providing the equipment in the jury room is to enable jurors to view the
exhibits received in evidence in this case. You may not use the equipment for any other purpose.
At my direction, technicians have taken steps to make sure that the equipment does not permit
access to the Internet or to any “outside” website, database, directory, game, or other material. Do
not attempt to alter the equipment to obtain access to such materials. If you discover that the
equipment provides or allows access to such materials, you must inform me immediately and
refrain from viewing such materials. Do not remove the equipment or exhibits from the jury room,
and do not copy the exhibits.

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18. OUTLINE OF TRIAL
Trials proceed in the following way: First, each side may make an opening statement.
An opening statement is not evidence. It is simply an outline to help you understand what that
party expects the evidence will show. A party is not required to make an opening statement.
The plaintiffs will then present evidence, and counsel for the defendants may cross-examine. Then
the defendants may present evidence, and counsel for the plaintiffs may cross-examine.
After the evidence has been presented, I will instruct you on the law that applies to the case and the
attorneys will make closing arguments.

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After that, you will go to the jury room to deliberate on your verdict.

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