Robb v. John C. Hickey, Inc.

Clyde Robb (plaintiff) brought a negligence suit on behalf of his decedent against John C. Hickey, Inc. (Hickey) (defendant), who argued the decedent was contributorily negligent, and the judge instructed the jury that if so, the parties' relative degrees of fault didn't matter. Read in the judge's absence, the jury's verdict stated there was negligence on both sides, that the defendant was more negligent, and recommended a $2,000 award to Robb -- language that directly contradicted the contributory-negligence instruction the jury had been given. Robb wanted the verdict set aside as ambiguous and inconsistent, while Hickey moved to 'mould' the verdict into a judgment in its own favor based on the jury instructions.