Dowling v. Prado Verde Ranch, Inc.

Summary

The Oklahoma Supreme Court held that defendants did not waive appellate review of requested statute-of-frauds jury instructions merely because they failed to reproduce the instructions verbatim in their brief. Because the instructions were included in the appellate record and the brief cited the specific record pages, the court distinguished its prior decision in Avard v. Leming. The court amended Oklahoma Supreme Court Rule 1.11(e)(1) to permit citation to the record instead of verbatim inclusion, vacated the Court of Civil Appeals’ opinion, and remanded for further consideration.

Holdings

1. Defendants did not waive appellate review merely because they failed to reproduce the requested instructions verbatim in their brief, where the instructions were included in the appellate record and the brief identified the specific pages where they could be found.
2. When a party challenges a jury instruction, the party must cite the place in the appellate record where the instruction may be found and identify the related objection; the party may reproduce the instruction in the brief's summary of the record or in an appendix, but verbatim reproduction is not mandatory.

Questions Presented

1. Whether defendants waived appellate review of refused jury instructions by failing to reproduce the instructions in totidem verbis in their brief when the instructions were included in the appellate record and identified by specific record-page citations.
2. Whether Oklahoma Supreme Court Rule 1.11(e)(1) should be amended to replace the verbatim-reproduction requirement with a requirement that the appellant cite the location of the instruction and the related objection in the appellate record.

Disposition

remanded