Opinion ID: 739296
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Remittitur of the Damages Award

Text: 89 After a full trial on liability and damages, the jury returned a verdict for Lightfoot and awarded him $750,000 in compensatory damages under the NYSHRL. Defendants moved for a remittitur of the damages award, or, in the alternative, a partial new trial on damages. The district court granted defendants' motion for remittitur, outrightly reducing the jury's award to $75,000. Lightfoot argues that because determination of an award of damages lies within the province of the jury, a court's outright reduction of a jury's award without offering the plaintiff the option of a new trial on damages denies the plaintiff his constitutional right to a jury trial. Plaintiff is right. 90 Where a jury has awarded damages in an amount considered excessive by the trial court, [i]t is not among the powers of the ... court ... simply to reduce the damages without offering the prevailing party the option of a new trial. Tingley Sys., Inc. v. Norse Sys., Inc., 49 F.3d 93, 96 (2d Cir.1995) (reviewing court's grant of remittitur of damages awarded under Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act); Phelan v. Local 305 of the United Ass'n of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing & Pipefitting Indus., 973 F.2d 1050, 1064 (2d Cir.1992). This rule derives from the trial-by-jury protections of the Seventh Amendment. Cf. Kennon v. Gilmer, 131 U.S. 22, 29, 9 S.Ct. 696, 698-99, 33 L.Ed. 110 (1889). A trial court may, however, condition denial of a defendant's motion for a new trial on the plaintiff's stipulation to a remittitur in a stated amount. See Tingley, 49 F.3d at 96, 11 Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2815 (1995). 91 Accordingly, the district court erred in granting defendants' motion for a remittitur without offering Lightfoot the option of a new trial on damages. We must remand to allow Lightfoot the opportunity to exercise this option. The Supreme Court's recent decision in Gasperini v. Center for Humanities, 518 U.S. 415, ----, 116 S.Ct. 2211, 2218, 135 L.Ed.2d 659 (1996) sets forth the applicable standards to determine excessiveness and the appropriateness of remittitur under New York law.