Carsey

*388 MEMORANDUM *

Bonnie Carsey sued the Town of Wilkeson and its mayor, Richard Sellers, for retaliatory discharge on both state and federal grounds. A jury found in the defendants’ favor, and Carsey appealed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

Carsey challenges the district court’s jury instruction permitting the defendants to escape liability if they proved an overriding justification under Washington law for terminating Carsey’s employment. Even were we to assume that the instruction improperly stated Washington law, such error is not a basis for reversal. The challenged instruction placed a heavier legal burden on the defendants than the instructions proposed by Carsey. Accordingly, any error was more probably than not harmless. See Haddad v. Lockheed California Corp., 720 F.2d 1454, 1459 (9th Cir.1983) (“[W]hen an appellate court ponders the probable effect of an error on a civil trial, it need only find that the jury’s verdict is more probably than not untainted by the error.”).

In addition, the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to give Carsey’s special interrogatories or her instructions regarding Washington…