Opinion ID: 1138853
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: propriety of order increasing awards

Text: The verdicts against Vincent apparently made no allowance for damages for pain and disfigurement suffered by plaintiffs since the amounts awarded were insufficient to cover medical expenses and loss of earnings. Plaintiffs' motion for new trial was denied on condition that Vincent consent to a modification of the judgment increasing each award in an amount fixed by the court. The figures arrived at exceeded the special damages proved and apparently included some compensation for pain and disfigurement. Vincent agreed to the increases, but plaintiffs' assent was not required or given. The primary question concerns the propriety of the court's action in assessing damages without plaintiffs' consent. Plaintiffs contend that the amounts fixed by the court are inadequate and that, since the damages are contested and uncertain, the act of the court in increasing the jury's award without their consent constitutes a denial of their right to a jury trial in violation of article I, section 7, of the California Constitution which provides that the right of trial by jury shall be secured to all, and remain inviolate. [6] This section guarantees the right of jury trial as it existed at common law when the Constitution was adopted in 1849. ( People v. Kelly, 203 Cal. 128, 133 [263 P. 226]; People v. Martin, 188 Cal. 281, 285-286 [205 P. 121, 21 A.L.R. 1399]; Southern Pac. Land Co. v. Dickerson, 188 Cal. 113, 117-118 [204 P. 576]; Cline v. Superior Court, 184 Cal. 331, 339 [193 P. 929]; Martin v. Superior Court, 176 Cal. 289, 292-294 [168 P. 135, L.R.A. 1918B 313]; see Estate of Bainbridge, 169 Cal. 166, 167 [146 P. 427]; Ingraham v. Weidler, 139 Cal. 588, 589-590 [73 P. 415].) At that time, apparently, there was no recognized common law practice allowing the court to increase a jury's award in a case involving unliquidated damages. (See Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U.S. 474, 476-482 [55 S.Ct. 296, 297-299, 79 L.Ed. 603, 95 A.L.R. 1150]; Mayne's Treatise on Damages [2d ed., 1856] pp. 303-305, [9th ed. 1919] pp. 571, 580; Sedgwick, Treatise on Damages [1847] pp. 19, 21, footnote p. 582, cf. [4th ed. 1868] pp. 710-717.) [7] The constitutional guarantee does not require adherence to the letter of common law practice, and new procedures better suited to the efficient administration of justice may be substituted if there is no impairment of the substantial features of a jury trial. ( People v. Hickman, 204 Cal. 470, 476 [268 P. 909, 270 P. 1117].) [8] An essential element of such a trial, however, is that issues of fact shall be decided by a jury, and the assessment of damages is ordinarily a question of fact. The jury as a fact-finding body occupies so firm and important a place in our system of jurisprudence that any interference with its function in this respect must be examined with the utmost care. There is a conflict of authority as to the extent of a court's power to increase the amount of an inadequate award over plaintiffs' objection. Some jurisdictions do not permit the exercise of such a power. ( Lemon v. Campbell, 136 Pa. Super. 370 [7 A.2d 643], citing Bradwell v. Pittsburgh & W.E.P.R. Co. 139 Pa. 404 [20 A. 1046]; see Watt v. Watt , L.R. [1905], A.C. 115, 119-121.) Some allow it where damages are liquidated or can be ascertained by a fixed standard. ( Rudnick v. Jacobs, 9 W.W.Harr. (Del.) 169 [197 A. 381, 383, 384, discussing Massachusetts and Michigan decisions; Kraas v. American Bakeries Co., 231 Ala. 278 [164 So. 565, 570].) Other jurisdictions apparently allow the court to assess increased damages as a condition to denying a new trial without regard to whether damages are liquidated or unliquidated. (See Markota v. East Ohio Gas Co., 154 Ohio 546 [97 N.E.2d 13, 18-19].) [2] The Wisconsin rule permits a court to increase an award over plaintiffs' objection if defendant consents to pay the largest amount which a jury could assess under the proof. (See Campbell v. Sutliff, 193 Wis. 370 [214 N.W. 374, 53 A.L.R. 771].) [9] The leading authority on the subject is Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U.S. 474 [55 S.Ct. 296, 79 L.Ed. 603, 95 A.L.R. 1150] which held that a federal court could not increase a jury's award without the consent of both parties. The decision points out that the practice was not recognized generally at common law, and that an attempt by the court to fix damages over plaintiff's objection constitutes a violation of the Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution which provides that the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. State courts, of course, are not bound by the Seventh Amendment ( Pearson v. Yewdall, 95 U.S. 294, 296 [24 L.Ed. 436]; Walker v. Sauvinet, 92 U.S. 90, 92 [23 L.Ed. 678], and it is true that there is some difference in language between that amendment and the parallel provision of the California Constitution. [3] The reasoning of the Dimick case, however, is applicable here since both the state and federal Constitutions adopted the existing rules of common law with regard to trial by jury, and the variation in language does not warrant a different interpretation of the state Constitution. It is generally recognized that a court may not increase an inadequate award in a case involving contested and unliquidated damages without the defendant's consent. (See note 53 A.L.R. 783; 95 A.L.R. 1165; cf. discussion of the Wisconsin practice in Campbell v. Sutliff, 193 Wis. 370 [214 N.W. 374, 53 A.L.R. 771].) It would seem to follow, logically, that the plaintiff's consent is also necessary. The assessment of damages by a court where they are speculative and uncertain constitutes more than a technical invasion of the plaintiff's right to a jury determination of the issue. Despite the fact that he has apparently benefited by the increase, the plaintiff has actually been injured if, under the evidence, he could have obtained a still larger award from a second jury. In the present case, for example, the evidence would sustain recovery for pain and disfigurement well in excess of the amounts assessed by the court. In support of the practice of denying a new trial over the plaintiffs' objection on condition that defendant consent to pay an increased amount, it has been said that the constitutional guarantee is satisfied when the plaintiff has had one jury trial and that the court's exercise of its power to grant or deny new trials will not be disturbed in the absence of an abuse of discretion. (See dissenting opinion Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U.S. at 492-498, 55 S.Ct. at 303-305.) [10] However, it is not the mere form of a jury trial to which one is entitled under the Constitution, but the fundamental right to have a jury determination of a question of fact. [11] It is, of course, clear that there has been no denial of such right if a verdict is set aside and motion for new trial granted. ( Estate of Bainbridge, 169 Cal. 166 [146 P. 427]; Ingraham v. Weidler, 139 Cal. 588 [73 P. 415].) [12] But it does not follow that, in lieu of ordering a new trial, the court may itself assess damages on conflicting or uncertain evidence and modify the judgment with the assent of only one party. Neither can such procedure be justified as a proper exercise of the court's authority to prescribe terms in granting or denying motions for new trials. [13] A court may not impose conditions which impair the right of either party to a reassessment of damages by the jury where the first verdict was inadequate, and the defendant's waiver of his right to jury trial by consenting to modification of the judgment cannot be treated as binding on the plaintiff. [14] It is true that a court has power to require reduction of a jury's award over the defendant's objection as a condition to denying his motion for a new trial in cases where damages are uncertain and speculative. ( Draper v. Hellman Commercial T. & S. Bank, 203 Cal. 26, 42-43 [263 P. 240]; Morris v. Standard Oil Co., 192 Cal. 343 [219 P. 998, 30 A.L.R. 1103]; Zibbell v. Southern Pac. Co., 160 Cal. 237, 254 [116 P. 513].) There is considerable doubt whether this power was recognized at common law, [4] but, as stated by this court in 1893, the practice is too firmly established in this state by a long line of decisions to be now questioned. ( Davis v. Southern Pac. Co., 98 Cal. 13, 17, 18 [32 P. 646].) There may be no real distinction between the powers to increase and decrease an award of damages, but it does not follow that because the practice of remitting damages over the defendant's objection has been approved through what appears to have been a misconception of common law procedure, we must now allow the court to assess increased damages over the plaintiff's objection, a practice which has even less basis in the common law. Like the United States Supreme Court in the Dimick case, we are reluctant to extend the precedent of the remittitur cases, by analogy or otherwise, to the present situation, since it would result in impairment of the right to jury trial. Arguments to the effect that courts should be permitted to increase awards without the plaintiff's consent because such procedure is more expeditious and would constitute an improvement over established practice might be persuasive if addressed to the people in support of a constitutional amendment, but they are not appropriate here. The judgment is reversed as to both defendants.