A Missouri employer who was hit with a $28 million verdict for an employee's work-related lung injury is getting a new trial due to an error in the jury instructions.
The Court of Appeals said the state of Missouri has not allowed "adverse-inference" jury instructions for more than 90 years.
"Every lawyer knows that ... an adverse presumption arises against the spoiler of evidence," the court noted. "Nevertheless, none of those presumptions or inferences or abstract statements of law has any place in a jury instruction."
Accordingly, the court said the...
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