Opinion ID: 2630568
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the excessiveness of the negligence award

Text: ¶ 9 The trial court remitted the jury's total award against all defendants of $210,000 in negligence damages to $65,000 under Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 59(a)(6), [2] finding there was no evidence that plaintiff had suffered more than that as a result of defendants' negligence. The court reached the remitted amount by subtracting the amount Diversified paid for the property ($785,000) from the (revised) evaluation of its worth offered by the principal who represented Diversified in the sale ($650,000). From the resulting difference of $135,000, the judge subtracted $70,000 attributable to fraudulent misrepresentation, and $1,336 interest charged on a loan that was part of the scheme. The remaining $65,000, according to the trial court, could be sustained as damages resulting from the defendants' negligence in not working zealously to obtain the best purchase price for their clients. The trial court found that there was no other evidence of damage presented or argued to the jury. ¶ 10 Plaintiff cross-appeals on the propriety of the negligence award, arguing that there was other evidence on which the jury properly could have based its original $210,000 award of negligence damages. Plaintiff is precluded from raising this argument, however, by our case law. Having opted to accept the remittitur of negligence damages made by the trial court instead of having a new trial, plaintiff cannot now challenge the amount of the damages on cross-appeal. In Dalton v. Herold, 934 P.2d 649 (Utah 1997), we held that a party who accepts an adjusted amount cannot thereafter appeal the propriety of the order. [3] We relied in part on Donovan v. Penn Shipping Co., 429 U.S. 648, 97 S.Ct. 835, 51 L.Ed.2d 112 (1977), where the United States Supreme Court held that a plaintiff in federal court, whether prosecuting a state or federal cause of action, may not appeal from a remittitur order he has accepted. [4] Id. at 650, 97 S.Ct. 835. ¶ 11 In Terry v. Zions Coop. Mercantile Institution, 605 P.2d 314 (Utah 1979), rev'd on other grounds, 678 P.2d 298 (Utah 1984), this court noted an exception to the general rule, that [w]here the party who moves for the reduction, i.e. the defendant, institutes an appeal of the lower court proceedings, the plaintiff should be free to cross-appeal the amount of remittitur, notwithstanding the fact that he has previously accepted the reduced amount. Id. at 326. That exception does not apply in the instant case. Defendants have not assigned as error the amount of negligence damages as remitted by the trial court. Defendants have assailed the amount of punitive damages, and plaintiff is therefore free to argue in favor of the amounts found and assessed by the jury. However, plaintiff cannot on cross-appeal assail the negligence damages which were remitted by the trial court, which amount plaintiff accepted in lieu of a new trial, and which amount defendants do not seek to disturb.