Legal Definitions - two-issue rule

Definition: The two-issue rule is a legal principle that states that if a trial jury is presented with multiple issues, and at least one of them is found to be error-free, the appellate court should assume that the jury based its verdict on the correct issue and not on the erroneous one. Therefore, the appellate court should uphold the judgment.

Example: Let's say a plaintiff sues a defendant for both breach of contract and negligence. The trial jury finds the defendant guilty of both charges, but the appellate court finds that there was an error in the negligence charge. In this case, the two-issue rule would apply, and the appellate court would assume that the jury based its verdict on the breach of contract charge, which was error-free. Therefore, the appellate court would uphold the judgment.

Explanation: The two-issue rule is designed to prevent a defendant from getting a new trial just because there was an error in one of the charges. The rule assumes that the jury was able to distinguish between the different charges and based its verdict on the correct one. This principle is important because it saves time and resources by avoiding unnecessary retrials.