Opinion ID: 1740168
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: Issue of Inconsistent Verdicts

Text: The defendants argue that the verdicts returned by the jury are inconsistent as a matter of law because the jury returned a verdict in favor of all the plaintiffs and against defendants Cooper & Company, Jordan R. Cooper, and Lloyd Botsford but in favor of defendants John E. Turberville, Turberville Construction, Inc., E.W. Brewer, and E.W. Brewer Quality Homes. The defendants contend that the verdicts are inconsistent because witnesses testified that both defendant John E. Turberville and defendant Eric Brewer made misrepresentations. The findings of the jury are not inconsistent. Within its prerogative, the jury could have disbelieved evidence offered against some defendants and believed evidence offered against others and likewise could have found differing tendencies in the evidence. See Courtesy Ford Sales, Inc. v. Clark, 425 So.2d 1075, 1077-78 (Ala. 1983). The record establishes that, although Botsford and Cooper, and through them Cooper & Company, knew of the inadequacy of the easement and the likelihood of flooding of the lots along the easement, these defendants did not tell Turberville or Brewer of the inadequacy of the easement when they brokered the sale between the developer and Turberville and the sale between the developer and Brewer. There was a great deal of difference in the evidence as to the fraudulent involvement of Botsford, Cooper, and Cooper & Company on the one hand and the evidence as to the fraudulent involvement of Turberville and Brewer on the other hand. There was substantial evidence that Botsford, Cooper, and Cooper & Company were involved at all stages of the subdivision marketing. Botsford, Cooper, and Cooper & Company marketed the Sunchase lots to builders and then again marketed the same lots to the plaintiffs. The jury's verdict against Botsford, Cooper, and Cooper & Company but in favor of Turberville and Brewer was not inconsistent. Clark, supra .