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Settlement by Jury Poll

Lawyers for VSI Holdings and SPX Corp. broke an impasse in the litigating parties’ breach-of-contract dispute by polling the jury to reach a settlement amount, seven weeks into the federal jury trial. Specifically, the parties agreed to a range of potential settlement payments, from $0 to $25 million, depending on how the jurors would vote in a secret ballot.

“We negotiated the question and instruction to the jury,” said Dennis Haffey, director of the litigation department at Dykema, which represented plaintiff VSI Holdings. “We polled each juror with a simple five-word question: ‘Which party do you favor?’” The possible answers were SPX, VSI or neither, with each vote counting as zero points (for the defendant), two (for the plaintiff) or one (for neither).

“There was no deliberating,” Haffey says. “Each juror answered the form separately by checking a box.”

The completed ballots were sealed and delivered to the court for counting. The results were five votes for the plaintiff, four for neither, and zero for the defendant—translating into a final settlement of $20 million for the plaintiff.

“This jury-polling system satisfied both camps, because the jury was still the decision-maker within the agreed range,” Haffey said.

Dennis Haffey can be reached at dhaffey@dykema.com.

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