Opinion ID: 537057
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Role of Sympathy in the Jury Verdict

Text: 26 The district court also based its granting of a new trial on its perception that the jurors were swayed by emotion and sympathy for Doug Roy III. It pointed to no evidence, however, to support this ruling. Certainly a jury presented with a case like this one, involving horrible burn injuries to a child, will be likely to feel great sympathy. The question, however, is whether the jury was able to put aside its personal feelings during its deliberations and decide the case as the evidence and the law dictated. There is no evidence that the jury here did otherwise. The district court repeatedly instructed the jury that sympathy could play no role in their deliberations. Moreover, the damages awarded were consistent with the amount the experts estimated would be required to compensate the Roys for their injuries and treatment. Punitive damages were denied. In light of the conflicting evidence, the verdict for the Roys does not necessarily indicate that the jury's decision was born of sympathy. 27 VW presented weighty evidence to the jury to counter the Roys' claims that a defect in the design of the VW van was the primary cause of the Roys' injuries. Nevertheless, the Roys' also strongly supported their claims. [I]t is the function of the jury as the traditional finder of the facts, and not the Court, to weigh conflicting evidence and inferences, and determine the credibility of witnesses. Boeing Company v. Shipman, 411 F.2d 365, 375 (5th Cir.1969) (en banc). Although under the evidence the jury could have concluded that the van was not defective, or that the defect was not a proximate cause of the accident, this possibility does not warrant granting a new trial. The evidence in this case was substantially balanced. VW's evidence did not so preponderate that it fell within the discretion of the trial judge to rule that the jury's verdict was against the great weight of the evidence.