Opinion ID: 268199
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Conditional Grant of a New Trial on All Issues.

Text: 46 Defendants attack as an abuse of discretion Judge Ritter's decision conditionally ordering a new trial on all issues if his granting of judgment n.o.v. were reversed on appeal. We agree. We observe initially that our review of this issue is hampered somewhat by the fact that Judge Ritter gave no reason for granting a new trial. Plaintiffs had asserted several possible grounds in making the motion, but our study of the record reveals that the grounds relied upon must have been (1) that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence and (2) that defendants' counsel was guilty of prejudicial misconduct in his argument to the jury. Cf. Leighton v. One William St. Fund, Inc., 343 F.2d 565, 567 (2d Cir. 1965). 47
48 We have already held that there was sufficient evidence to go to the jury either under the governing Second Circuit standard or under Judge Ritter's lesser standard of wilful misconduct. To order a new trial on the asserted ground when there was sufficient evidence to go to the jury need not be an abuse of discretion in every case, see 6 Moore, Federal Practice P59.08(5), at 3817, 3820 (2d ed. 1953), but we find that it was in this case. In light of the possible inferences as to what actually happened when the pilot began his let-down, we cannot agree that, viewed in light of the proper standard, the verdict could be called against the weight of the evidence. Cf. Damanti v. A/S Inger, 314 F.2d 395, 398 (2d Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Daniels & Kennedy, Inc. v. A/S Inger, 375 U.S. 834, 84 S.Ct. 46, 11 L.Ed.2d 64 (1963). 49 Nor can we accept plaintiffs' suggestion that the jury acted not on the evidence but out of prejudice and misunderstanding because it failed to award even the limited damages allowed under the Convention. It is true that defendants' counsel in his argument to the jury virtually conceded that their burden of proof on complete immunity had not been met. His statement, however, did not have sufficient formality or conclusiveness to be a judicial admission. See Rhoades, Inc. v. United Airlines, Inc., 340 F.2d 481, 484 (3d Cir. 1965); Note, Judicial Admissions, 64 Colum.L.Rev. 1121, 1132-33 (1964). Moreover, plaintiffs' counsel thereafter urged quite ardently that the jury should award all or nothing. The jury having adopted the latter suggestion, plaintiffs cannot now complain because their quite understandable strategy backfired. 50
51 Nor can we find anything in what defendants' counsel said to the jury to warrant awarding a new trial. With few exceptions-- none of which is substantial-- apparently no objection was made at the time to remarks now challenged as being so prejudicial. Thus, 'this challenge, raised for the first time on the motion for new trial, came too late.' Giffin v. Ensign, 234 F.2d 307, 316 (3d Cir. 1956); see Vareltzis v. Luckenbach S.S. Co., 153 F.Supp. 291 (S.D.N.Y.1957), aff'd 258 F.2d 78 (2d Cir. 1958). 52 In any case, the evidence here was almost entirely circumstantial. Any verdict would depend upon the inferences drawn from the known fragments, and most of what defendants' counsel did was to suggest certain inferences which could be drawn. In their memorandum to the trial court and on appeal, defendants have adequately shown that either they did not misstate the evidence or that any slight misstatements were not prejudicial. Misstatements of the law, if such there were, would not call for a new trial where the court's charge more than countered any such misstatements. Cf. A.B.C. Needlecraft Co. v. Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., 143 F.Supp. 686 (S.D.N.Y.1956), rev'd on other grounds, 245 F.2d 775 (2d Cir. 1957). Nor can we agree with the trial judge that plaintiffs' claim of misconduct constituted grounds for a new trial. See 'Appendix B,' 219 F.Supp. at 327-328. 53