Opinion ID: 1791715
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mitigation of Compensatory Damages

Text: The jury awarded Hall $400,000 in compensatory damages. Flint's only challenge to this award is an argument that the trial court erred in failing to find that Hall did not mitigate his damages. After the close of all the evidence, Flint moved for a JML on the ground that Hall had an opportunity to completely mitigate his damages and failed to do so. After denying the motion for a JML, the trial court charged the jury as follows: This is the charge as to mitigation. It is the duty of the one injured to exercise ordinary care to reduce his damages. He is bound to exercise such care as a reasonably prudent person would exercise under like circumstances to reduce or mitigate the damages. He can recover only such damages as would have been sustained had such care been exercised. Flint contends that because Hall turned down a job offer with a company that would have provided him with a salary and benefits comparable to those he received at Flint, he failed to mitigate his damages. Hall testified that he discussed the job referred to by Flint with the owner of the company, but that he and the owner never agreed upon the actual details of the job offer. Furthermore, Hall testified that if he had accepted the job offer, he would have been required to report for work immediately, and he had not yet been released by his doctor to return to work when the job offer was made. Because the evidence concerning Hall's ability to mitigate his damages was conflicting, we conclude that the trial court properly denied Flint's motion for a JML as to this issue and properly submitted the question to the jury for resolution. Absent an affirmative showing that the jury ignored the trial court's instruction to consider Hall's duty to mitigate his damages, error cannot be presumed on appeal, where the trial court properly charged the jury regarding that duty. See Empiregas, Inc. v. Hardy, 487 So.2d 244 (Ala.1985). Therefore, we affirm the judgment insofar as it awarded $400,000 in compensatory damages.