Opinion ID: 2619206
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Regularity of Verdict

Text: The reason assigned by Sun and Baker for setting aside the verdict of the jury is that each plaintiff awarded damages was given damages equal to exactly one-third of the amount claimed. Appellants argue that a verdict is invalid if it is arrived at by merely making a mathematical calculation rather than exercising judgment and weighing and considering the evidence. The only case called to our attention in support of the proposition that this verdict should be set aside is a 1925 case from North Carolina, Daniel v. Belhaven, 189 N.C. 181, 126 S.E. 421. In that case, several plaintiffs were claiming damages for obstructing the flow of water and causing it to be ponded on their several tracts of land. In the margin of the verdict the jury had written, The jury agrees that each man shall be paid 30 per cent. of his claim. The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the trial court in setting aside the verdict, saying there seemed to be no practical distinction between a case in which the jurors agree to accept one-twelfth of the aggregate amount of their several estimates without further deliberation and a case in which they agree arbitrarily to award 30 percent of the plaintiffs' demands, apparently without due regard to the evidence in each case. In effect appellants argue to us that the case at bar is similar to the case where jurors arrive at their verdict by taking one-twelfth of the aggregate amounts which each juror would allow. But we think the appellants overlook what the correct rule is with respect to a verdict which is attacked as a quotient verdict. A good statement of such rule seems to be stated in 89 C.J.S. Trial § 472, pp. 113-114. It is to the effect that the test to be applied in determining the validity of a quotient verdict is whether the jury agreed beforehand to be bound by the result reached, since it is not the mere arriving at the average of the jurors' opinions as to the amount of damage which makes the quotient verdict bad, but the vice consists in an agreement by the jurors to be bound by the result of the addition and division, thus allowing the quotient whatever it may be to stand without subsequent reconsideration. If, however, there is no agreement that the average estimate shall be binding, and the averaging is done merely for the purpose of arriving at a working basis which the jurors are to be free to accept or reject as they see fit, a verdict subsequently agreed to is binding, whether it be for the average or for some other amount. For cases which have followed such a rule see the following: Blevins v. Al Weingart Truck & Tractor Service, Inc., 186 Kan. 258, 349 P.2d 896, 901-902; Foster v. City of Augusta, 174 Kan. 324, 256 P.2d 121, 125; Ehalt v. McCarthy, 104 Utah 110, 138 P.2d 639, 647; Will v. Southern Pac. Co., 18 Cal.2d 468, 116 P.2d 44, 49; Wiles v. Northern Pac. Ry. Co., 66 Wash. 337, 119 P. 810, 812. We are shown no reason for believing the jurors in the instant case agreed beforehand to award each claimant one-third of the damages prayed for, without regard to the evidence in each case. The fact that the same attorneys represented all of the plaintiffs would make it understandable that there could be a common relationship in each case between the amount of actual damages and the amount prayed for. If we assume, which we must do, that jurors are capable of determining actual damages, then it would be possible for a juror to discover from the evidence in a given case that those preparing the complaints had consistently requested damages for three times the amount of actual damages. From ought that appears in the record of this case, a juror may have proposed, as a working basis, a verdict for each plaintiff entitled to damages, in the amount of one-third of the sum asked. In the absence of anything in the record to indicate otherwise, we must assume all jurors were free to accept or reject the proposal of one-third, whenever and however it happened to be proposed, and we must also assume the one-third figure for each plaintiff was subsequently considered by the full jury, after it was proposed, in the light of the evidence pertaining to the damage suffered by each party. There being sufficient evidence from which the jury could find that Baker was acting within the scope of his employment at the time of his collision with the Brown vehicle, and there being no evidence of misconduct on the part of the jury in arriving at its verdict, we conclude the judgment of the district court should be affirmed. Affirmed.