Opinion ID: 509511
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Smith's excessiveness motion for new trial

Text: 11 In a post-trial motion, Smith requested a new trial on grounds that the jury verdict resulted from passion and prejudice. The district court held that the jury's award of $1,250,000 against Smith for Simeon's pain and suffering was excessive and ordered a new trial unless Simeon would accept a remittitur to $750,000. Simeon accepted the remittitur, but Smith continues to assert that a new trial was in order. We review the district court's denial of a motion for new trial for abuse of discretion. Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Floyd, 249 F.2d 396, 399 (5th Cir.1957), cert. denied, 356 U.S. 949, 78 S.Ct. 913, 2 L.Ed.2d 843 (1958). 12 Almost half a century ago, our Court stated, [W]hile mere excessiveness in the amount to be awarded may be cured by a remittitur, that excessiveness which results from passion and prejudice, however natural the resentment which arouses it, may not be so cured. Brabham v. Mississippi, 96 F.2d 210, 214 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 305 U.S. 636, 59 S.Ct. 103, 83 L.Ed. 409 (1938). A new trial must be ordered when the verdict results from passion and prejudice. 13 Smith argues that Simeon made several improper attempts to arouse passion and prejudice in the jury. His counsel asked Simeon to walk to a chalkboard to draw a diagram. (This was inflammatory, claims Smith, because counsel commented on Simeon's usual use of a cane, and the jury's attention was focused on Simeon's struggle to walk.) Simeon's counsel introduced gruesome pictures of his injury; in her testimony, Simeon's daughter commented that as a child she had bounced on her father's foot; Simeon's doctor described one particular treatment as a crucifixion; Simeon quite vividly described the injury and how it occurred, and also mentioned his annual salary and that his compensation had been cut off. 14 Smith's counsel lodged no contemporaneous objections to any of these occurrences except to Simeon's remark about his wages, and the district court instructed the jury to ignore Simeon's comment. 15 In those circumstances, we do not believe the cited instances required a new trial in lieu of a remittitur. The jury no doubt had observed Simeon's hobbled gait as he took the witness stand. Any additional impact on the jury as it watched Simeon walk to the chalkboard was not seriously prejudicial. The allegedly gruesome photographs simply show the condition of Simeon's foot as he recuperated in the hospital. Any gruesomeness was due wholly to the nature of Simeon's injury, and it is not shown that any other reasonably accurate and complete photographic portrayal would have been less gruesome. The testifying physician's reference to a particular procedure as a crucifixion was not without some legitimacy because that is apparently the shorthand medical term for that procedure, and it was not an inflammatory label concocted for trial. Simeon's description of the injury was vivid, but we do not believe he resorted to an excessively dramatic portrayal of how his foot was severed. The $1,250,000 award was excessive and, had Simeon not accepted the remittitur, a new trial would have been in order simply because the award was so inordinately large as to be contrary to right reason. Caldarera v. Eastern Airlines, Inc., 705 F.2d 778, 784 (5th Cir.1983) (quoting Floyd, 249 F.2d at 399). Nevertheless, the evidence on which Smith relies to prove that the verdict resulted from passion and prejudice is not strongly convincing, particularly in light of the failure to object in all instances save one where the objection was sustained. Hence, the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to order a new trial.