Phillips v. Lawrence, 87 Ill. App.2d 60, 230 N.E.2d 505 (1967); Shore v. Turman, 63 Ill. App.2d 315, 210 N.E.2d 232 (1965). But in Culp v. Olive, 45 Ill. App.2d 396, 195 N.E.2d 729 (1964), in discussing their pattern instructions, the court said: "* * * Modern tendency favors a liberal application of the harmless error doctrine to instructions when it appears the rights of the complaining party have in no way been prejudiced.
Objections to instructions must be made with sufficient particularity to afford the court identity of the error relied upon. ( Mathis v. Burlington Northern, Inc. (1978), 67 Ill. App.3d 1009, 1011, 385 N.E.2d 780, 782.) Objections must specifically point out wherein the instruction is an incorrect statement of the law or not applicable. ( Culp v. Olive (1964), 45 Ill. App.2d 396, 406, 195 N.E.2d 729, 734.) The failure to specifically set forth the error with sufficient clarity to identify the issue constitutes a waiver of objections to the instruction.
The omission of reference to proximate cause is cured by plaintiff's Instruction No. 10 defining this term (IPI 15.01) and plaintiff's Instruction No. 13 on burden of proof on the issues (IPI 21.02). (See Culp v. Olive, 45 Ill. App.2d 396, 195 N.E.2d 729.) We find the various subparagraphs of the issues instruction to be proper, particularly in the light of the conclusions set forth in other portions of this opinion.
See comments to IPI, ยง 12.02. Indeed in Culp v. Olive, 45 Ill. App.2d 396, 195 N.E.2d 729, the principal case relied upon by defendant, the court discusses the recommendation against usage, indicates that it does not disagree with such recommendation and then holds that the giving of such instruction was harmless error. The defendant in this court has failed to show any reason why the recommendations of the drafters of the Pattern Jury Instructions should be disregarded and accordingly, we believe the trial court erred in giving the instruction.
[7] The plaintiff next alleges that a "sudden emergency" instruction given by the Court, Defendant's No. 4, was erroneous. Although IPI ยง 12.02 (1961) recommended that the instruction not be given, the identical instruction was given in Culp v. Olive, 45 Ill. App.2d 396, 195 N.E.2d 729 (1964) and there held to be harmless error, the Court saying: "We are fully aware of the thinking of the committee which prepared IPI. The principle giving rise to their recommendation that such an instruction not be given is, `It states a simple and obvious fact about human behavior' . . . `when no juror would need to be reminded of the proposition.' If this reasoning is adopted, and if this matter is the proper subject of comment on final argument as suggested by the committee, then we fail to see how plaintiff was prejudiced by the giving of the instruction.
We further note that the drafters of the Illinois Pattern Instructions recommended that no instructions be given on this subject concluding that it was argumentative, stated an obvious fact about human behavior and under many circumstances would lead to reversible error. See IPI No. 12.02 and Culp v. Olive, 45 Ill. App.2d 396, 195 N.E.2d 729. We do not entirely agree with the recommendation of the drafters of IPI and can visualize or hypothecate situations in which such instruction would be proper, but under the record in this case, even assuming the instruction should have been given, we find the error to be harmless.