A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision demonstrates how
easy it can be not to preserve, or even waive, error in a trial
court's jury instructions.
Prior to trial, the plaintiff in Jones v. Ott, Case No.
12 WAP 2017, 2018 WL 3977960 (Pa. Aug. 21, 2018), filed proposed
jury instructions on negligence per se. At trial, those requested
instructions were not given to the jury, but the charge conference
was not recorded and no mention of the requests was made on the
record. When the trial court finished instructing the jury and
asked if any party wanted to put something on the record, the
plaintiff's counsel responded, "I have no issues with the
charge, Your Honor."
After the jury returned a defense verdict, the plaintiff moved
for a new trial based on the trial court's failure to give the
requested instructions. The plaintiff relied on case law seeming to
permit a jury instruction challenge where a requested instruction
was filed with the trial court and the issue
