Opinion ID: 783545
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Failure to Grant Remittitur or a New Trial

Text: 59 We review a remittitur ruling for abuse of discretion. See Gregory v. Shelby County, Tenn., 220 F.3d 433, 443 (6th Cir.2000). A trial court is within its discretion in remitting a verdict only when, after reviewing all evidence in the light most favorable to the awardee, it is convinced that the verdict is clearly excessive, resulted from passion, bias or prejudice; or is so excessive or inadequate as to shock the judicial conscience of the court. Id. We find that the jury award in this case, $750 in compensatory damages and $250 in punitive damages for each of the three claims properly submitted, is not clearly excessive, does not show the jury acted from passion, bias, or prejudice, and does not shock our judicial conscience. 60 We likewise review the denial of a motion for a new trial for abuse of discretion. See Barnes v. Owens-Corning, 201 F.3d 815, 820 (6th Cir.2000). When the new trial motion is based upon a challenge to jury instructions, we must evaluate the jury instructions to determine whether, taken as a whole, they were misleading or provided an inadequate understanding of the law. See Bowman v. Koch Transfer Co., 862 F.2d 1257, 1263 (6th Cir.1988). The defendants first argue that the legal mail instruction was in error. We agree and, as stated above, find that the court should have determined which letters were legal mail and submitted only those claims to the jury. As for the rest of the defendants' complaints concerning the jury instructions — namely, those related to specific intent, prior convictions, and government witnesses, as well as the contention that the district court should have used a special verdict form with separate sections for the two defendants — we find no error. When taken as a whole, the jury instructions, with the exception of the legal mail instruction, were not misleading and did not provide an inadequate understanding of the law. 61 The defendants also argued for a new trial based on evidentiary rulings involving hearsay and the best evidence rule. After a careful review of the record, we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion in denying the motion for a new trial that challenged these rulings.