Court Opinion

ID: 9790009
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:45:10.95217+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:25.717381
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Chief Justice
(concurring in the result).
I concur in the result. In the case of Stamp v. Union Pacific R. Co., referred to in the main opinion, I set forth, according to my understanding, the rules governing the prerogatives and duties of the court in reviewing and ruling upon damages awarded by juries. I refer thereto, but in the interest of economy of space, omit repetition here. I am in accord with the idea that upon a survey of the evidence, the amount awarded for the plaintiff’s injuries can reasonably be regarded as not so grossly excessive as to clearly indicate that the verdict resulted from passion, prejudice, or corruption so that the entire verdict is tainted and should be unconditionally set aside, but that it falls within the second class of cases treated by the writer in the Stamp case: where the tainting factors just recited are not present, but the award is plainly above any reasonable appraisal of the damages suffered. In such instance it is within the prerogative of the trial court in the first instance, or upon its failure, of this court, to order a remittitur of the damages to an amount justified by the evidence, or, if the plaintiff refuses to agree thereto, to grant a new trial. For these reasons I concur in the order made.
WADE, J., concurs on grounds stated by CROCKETT, C. J.