stumped...table - row - click event, cancel checkbox event

[dave]

I have a html table and mutliple rows. On each row i put an onclick event
that opesn a modal window and prompts the user for some information.

I want this modal window to show when the user clicks anything on that row.
I have a few checkboxes in the row cells.

The click event first fires on the checkbox and then the row (opening the
modal window after the checkbox is checked).

How can I force the modal window to open first and cancel the onclick on the
checkbox????

Once the modal window has been opened i set a value on the row so that
future clicks do not open the modal window.

any help would be appreciated
dave