Case Title: National Security Insurance Company v. Elliott

Citation: 162 So. 2d 449

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1964-03-19T00:00:00Z

Document:
162 So. 2d 449 (1964)
NATIONAL SECURITY INSURANCE COMPANY
v.
Johnnie R. ELLIOTT.
6 Div. 775.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
March 19, 1964.
*450 Parsons, Wheeler & Rose, Birmingham, for appellant.
Nelson Vinson, Hamilton, for appellee.
COLEMAN, Justice.
This is an appeal by defendant from a judgment granting a new trial to the plaintiff in an action on a group accident insurance policy.
The original trial was before the court without a jury. The court rendered judgment for defendant. Within thirty days, plaintiff filed his motion for new trial which recites as follows:
Before hearing the motion, Judge Fowler, who had tried the case and rendered judgment for defendant, resigned. The motion for new trial was heard by Judge Fite who granted a new trial to the plaintiff.
The record contains the following stipulation:
Defendant argues that neither one of the two grounds of the motion is supported by the evidence; that because Judge Fite, who granted the motion, had not heard the evidence on the original trial, his ruling is not attended by any favorable presumption as to the ground that the judgment is not supported by the great preponderance of the evidence; that the original judgment is supported by the great preponderance of the evidence according to the established rule of review; and, therefore, that the court erred to reversal in granting the new trial.
Plaintiff has not filed a brief.
We consider the first ground of the motion. The motion is not sworn to. No *451 affidavits are attached to the motion. There is no testimony taken on the hearing of the motion to show what the newly discovered evidence is, the names of the witnesses who would testify to the facts alleged, or that plaintiff was not guilty of lack of diligence in discovering the new evidence at the time of the original trial.
Among other prerequisites to a motion for new trial for newly discovered evidence is the requirement that the motion should set forth the names of the witnesses who would testify to the facts alleged and be accompanied by the affidavits of said witnesses. Malone Coal, Grain & Motor Co. v. Hale, 207 Ala. 335, 336, 92 So. 553.
Again, a new trial should not be granted on newly discovered evidence unless such evidence would probably change the verdict. Malone Coal, Grain & Motor Co. v. Hale, supra.
In the instant case, plaintiff completely failed to comply with the above stated rules, or to excuse his failure to comply with them, and the court erred in granting the new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence.
The second ground of the motion for new trial is that the decision or judgment for the defendant is not sustained by the great preponderance of the evidence.
It is to be remembered that this case was tried by the court without a jury. In such a trial, it seems axiomatic that the decision of the court has the effect of the verdict of a jury. Beasley v. Beasley, 256 Ala. 647, 649, 57 So. 2d 69.
In the case at bar, the new trial was not granted by the judge who tried the case and heard and saw the witnesses testify. At most, the judge hearing the motion could read, or have read to him, a transcription of the evidence given ore tenus on the original trial. The parties have stipulated that the testimony taken at the trial has not been transcribed or read to the judge hearing the motion. In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict, the judge hearing the motion did not have the benefit of observing the witnesses, and there is no reason known to us why there should be any presumption that his ruling on the sufficiency of the evidence is correct. He was no better advantaged than the appellate court in reviewing the evidence. It is, therefore, our duty to review the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the judgment for defendant without presumption in favor of the ruling granting the new trial. On the contrary, we should indulge the presumption that the judge who heard the evidence ore tenus on the original trial decided correctly. As already stated, his decision is like the verdict of a jury.
The rule of review applicable here has been stated as follows:
We will apply the rule to this case. This action is to recover on an accident insurance policy. The facts are stated in appellant's (defendant's) brief as follows:
Supreme Court Rule 9 recites in pertinent part as follows:
Appellee has made no corrections or additions to appellant's statement of the facts, and, according to Rule 9, appellant's statement of the facts is to be taken as accurate and sufficient for decision.
From appellant's statement of the facts, it appears that there was evidence to show that plaintiff was not an employee of the company to whom defendant's policy was issued, and that plaintiff, at the time of injury, was working for a different employer. It seems to us that, if plaintiff was not an employee of the insured employer at the time of injury, plaintiff would not be entitled to recover from defendant under the policy sued on, and that there is some evidence to support the judgment originally rendered for defendant.
We are, therefore, of opinion that the court erred in granting a new trial on the second ground of the motion.
Because neither ground of the motion for new trial is supported by the record, the judgment granting a new trial is due to be reversed.
Appellant asks in brief that judgment be rendered reinstating the judgment for defendant. Title 7, § 810, Code 1940, recites:
We are of opinion that appellant's request is one proper to be granted under *453 the statute. The result of reversal is to set aside the judgment granting a new trial. The judgment for defendant thus becomes the final judgment in the cause. There is not, so far as we are advised, any further action to be taken by the trial court. Accordingly, a judgment will be here rendered denying and overruling the motion for new trial.
Reversed and rendered.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and LAWSON and GOODWYN, JJ., concur.