Case Title: Orientale v. Jennings

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: new-jersey

Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

Date: 2019-09-23T00:00:00Z

Document:
This syllabus is not part of the Court’s opinion. It has been prepared by the Office of the
Clerk for the convenience of the reader. It has been neither reviewed nor approved by the
Court. In the interest of brevity, portions of an opinion may not have been summarized.

             Barbara Orientale v. Darrin L. Jennings (A-43-17) (079953)

Argued October 9, 2018 -- Re-Argued April 24, 2019 -- Decided September 23, 2019

ALBIN, J., writing for the Court.

        In this case, the Court considers the practices of additur and remittitur. Currently,
when a jury’s damages award is so grossly excessive that it shocks the judicial
conscience, the trial judge may, with the consent of the plaintiff, grant a remittitur -- the
highest award that, in the judge’s view, could be sustained by the evidence. If the
plaintiff accepts the remitted amount, the defendant is bound by that judicial finding,
subject to the right to appeal. Likewise, when a jury’s damages award is so grossly
inadequate that it shocks the judicial conscience, the trial judge may, with the consent of
the defendant, grant an additur -- an increased award that, in the judge’s view, could be
sustained by the evidence. If the defendant accepts the additional amount, the plaintiff is
bound by that judicial finding, subject to the right to appeal.

       Plaintiff Barbara Orientale brought a personal-injury lawsuit against defendant
Darrin Jennings for allegedly setting off an automobile accident that caused her to suffer
permanent injuries. The trial court entered partial summary judgment against Jennings,
finding that he was at fault for causing the accident. Orientale and Jennings then settled
the lawsuit for $100,000, the full amount of liability coverage on Jennings’s vehicle.

       Orientale maintained an underinsured motorist policy with defendant Allstate New
Jersey Insurance Company (Allstate) that provided coverage for damages up to $250,000.
Orientale initiated a claim for her personal-injury damages in excess of $100,000
allegedly caused by the accident. Although the jury returned a verdict finding that
Orientale suffered a permanent injury, it awarded damages in the amount of only $200.
Because the jury award did not exceed Orientale’s $100,000 settlement with Jennings,
Allstate’s underinsured motorist coverage policy was not triggered. Therefore, the judge
entered a no-cause-of-action judgment.

        Orientale moved for a new damages trial or an additur. The judge vacated the
damages award, finding that it constituted a miscarriage of justice, and granted an additur
in the amount of $47,500, the lowest award in his estimation that a reasonable jury could
have returned in light of the evidence presented at trial. Allstate accepted the additur.
Because Orientale’s damages did not exceed $100,000, the judge again entered a
                                              1
judgment in favor of Allstate, which the Appellate Division affirmed in an unpublished
decision. The Court granted Orientale’s petition for certification.  232 N.J. 154 (2018).

HELD: The Court brings the use of remittitur and additur in line with basic notions of
fair play and equity. When a damages award is deemed a miscarriage of justice requiring
the grant of a new trial, then the acceptance of a damages award fixed by the judge must
be based on the mutual consent of the parties. Going forward, in those rare instances
when a trial judge determines that a damages award is either so grossly excessive or
grossly inadequate that the grant of a new damages trial is justified, the judge has the
option of setting a remittitur or an additur at an amount that a reasonable jury would
award given the evidence in the case. Setting the figure at an amount a reasonable jury
would award -- an amount that favors neither side -- is intended to give the competing
parties the greatest incentive to reach agreement. If both parties accept the remittitur or
additur, then the case is settled; if not, a new trial on damages must proceed before a jury.

1. In the early English common law, additur did not exist, and remittitur did not bear any
resemblance to how it is practiced today. In 1822, United States Supreme Court Justice
Joseph Story, sitting as a Circuit Justice, upheld a verdict on liability but found the
damages award was excessive. Blunt v. Little,  3 Mason 102, 102 (1822). Justice Story
noted, “I believe that I go to the very limits of the law,” in concluding “that it is
reasonable, that the cause should be submitted to another jury, unless the plaintiff is
willing to remit $500 of his damages. If he does, the court ought not to interfere farther.”
Ibid. Justice Story did not seek the defendant’s consent to the remittitur. In time, Justice
Story’s use of remittitur was accepted by the United States Supreme Court. Nonetheless,
in a case involving a constitutional challenge to additur, the Court reexamined the
validity of the then-accepted practice of remittitur and reasoned that Justice Story’s use of
remittitur rested on a shaky legal foundation. Dimick v. Schiedt,