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Donelson v. Fritz11/21/2002
JUDGMENT AFFIRMED
Davidson and Dailey, JJ., concur
In this action for damages arising out of an automobile accident, plaintiff, Sammuel C. Donelson, appeals the judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of defendant, Brad C. Fritz. We affirm.
Defendant ran a red light and struck a car. That car, in turn, hit plaintiff's car. Plaintiff sued to recover damages for his injuries. The jury found that plaintiff had not incurred medical expenses in excess of the $2,500 statutory threshold and accordingly returned a verdict for defendant.
I. Batson Issues
Plaintiff first contends that the trial court erred in failing to sustain his challenges to defendant's exclusion of jurors on account of race, gender, and disability. We disagree.
A. Race
The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the use of peremptory challenges to discriminate against potential jurors based on race. Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986); Valdez v. People, 966 P.2d 587 (Colo. 1998). This prohibition is applicable in civil as well as criminal cases. Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., 500 U.S. 614, 111 S.Ct. 2077, 114 L.Ed.2d 660 (1991); Middleton v. Beckett, 960 P.2d 1213 (Colo. App. 1998).
Batson outlines a three-step process for evaluating claims of racial discrimination in jury selection. The first step requires that the challenging party make a prima facie showing that the other party excluded a potential juror because of race. The prima facie standard is not high and requires only evidence sufficient to raise an inference that discrimination occurred. Further, this issue generally becomes moot once the court has gone through the second and third steps in the Batson analysis. Valdez v. People, supra.
If the challenging party establishes a prima facie case, the burden shifts to the proponent of the challenged strike to come forward with a race-neutral explanation for it. Although that burden cannot be satisfied merely by denying a racially discriminatory motive, the explanation need not be persuasive or even plausible as long as it is facially race-neutral. Valdez v. People, supra.
If a race-neutral reason is tendered, then the trial court advances to the third and final step, in which it must determine whether the opponent of the strike has proven purposeful racial discrimination. The opponent must have the opportunity to rebut the proponent's race-neutral explanation by showing, for example, that it is pretext. The court must then determine, on the basis of all the evidence before it, whether it can find by a preponderance of the evidence that one or more potential jurors were excluded because of race. Valdez v. People, supra.
On appeal, we review de novo the trial court's ruling on steps one and two of the Batson analysis. However, we afford deference to its ultimate resolution of a Batson challenge in step three, reversing only for clear error. Valdez v. People, supra.
When plaintiff, who is African-American, objected to defendant's peremptory challenge to a Spanish-surnamed juror, the trial court found that a prima facie Batson showing had been established and invited defendant to state a race-neutral basis for the exercise of his peremptory challenge. In response, defendant stated that the challenged juror worked with a small company and had expressed concern about having to be at the trial. Further, the juror had only a high school education, was single, and had characterized himself as a "buyer."
Arguing that defendant's reasons were pretextual, plaintiff pointed out that defendant had challenged other mino
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