Court Opinion

ID: 9722804
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:50:58.020178+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:40.334232
License: Public Domain

ERICKSTAD, Judge
(dissenting).
Although the majority of this court relies heavily on Kohlman v. Hyland, 56 N.D. 772, 219 N.W. 228 (1928) and McDermott v. Sway, 78 N.D. 521, 50 N.W.2d 235 (1951), the latter case based on principles stated and analyzed by Judge Birdzell in the former case, the majority does not refer to the first and most fundamental rule laid down in Kohlman — that is, that orders granting new trials stand on a firmer foundation in an appellate court than do orders denying new trials. Kohlman v. Hyland, supra, 219 N.W. 230.
In a still earlier case this court said:
It is true that an order of the court denying “a new trial rests largely in the discretion of the trial court” and the appellate court will not interfere unless an abuse of judicial discretion is shown. Huber v. Zeiszler, 37 N.D. 556, 560, 164 N.W. 131. This is applicable where the ground alleged is the insufficiency of the evidence. Martin v. Parkins, 55 N.D. 339, 213 N.W. 574. In such case we review the evidence to determine whether the trial court acted within its discretion. Martin v. Parkins, supra.
A distinction, however, is made between cases where the trial court, in the exercise of its discretion, grants a new trial, and where a new trial is denied. In the former case a stronger showing must be made in order to secure a reversal. Kohlman v. Hyland, 56 N.D. 772, 219 N.W. 228. Shuman v. Lesmeister, 34 N.D. 209, 158 N.W. 271.
Donahue v. Boynton, 62 N.D. 182, 242 N.W. 530, 532 (1932).
In Linington v. McLean County, 146 N.W.2d 45 (N.D.1966), this court, speaking through Judge Strutz, said:
[A] motion for new trial based on insufficiency of the evidence is addressed to the sound, judicial discretion of the trial court, and the action of the trial court in passing on such motion will not be disturbed unless an abuse of discretion is clearly established. Stokes v. Dailey (N.D.), 97 N.W.2d 676; Grenz v. Werre (N.D.), 129 N.W.2d 681; Kuntz v. McQuade (N.D.), 95 N.W.2d430.
*532An order granting a new trial on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence will not be reversed as readily as an order denying a new trial, since such order granting a new trial does not make final determination of the case. Olson v. Thompson (N.D.), 74 N.W.2d 432; Mischel v. Vogel (N.D.), 96 N.W.2d 233.
Appellate courts are much more reluctant to interfere with the action of a trial court in granting a new trial than they are to interfere when a new trial has been denied. Blum v. Standard Oil Co., 68 N.D. 329, 279 N.W. 764.
Linington v. McLean County, supra, 146 N.W.2d 52.
In Donahue this court reviewed the evidence and found that the trial court did not exercise a legal discretion in denying a new trial; in Kohlman this court reviewed the evidence and found that the trial court abused its discretion in granting the motion for new trial; and in Linington this court reviewed the evidence and found that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting the motion for new trial. Obviously, the difference must lie in the facts of the cases, but the rule that the decision lies in the discretion of the trial court is fundamental.
This brings us to an analysis of the majority opinion in the instant case.
The majority of the court first quotes a part of the trial court’s memorandum and immediately afterward says: “In other words, the court found the verdict returned was not in accordance with the evidence because it was against law.”
I do not believe that this is a correct— or, for that matter, a fair — analysis of the trial court’s finding.
It was obviously the trial court’s view that one of the major contributing causes of the accident was the failure on the part of the plaintiff’s driver to give an audible signal before commencing to pass the defendant’s vehicle. The court did not consider the failure to give an audible signal to be the sole factor, as is indicated by its finding that the plaintiff’s driver failed to keep a proper lookout.
That the trial court weighed the evidence, found the facts, and arrived at a conclusion therefrom could not of itself be considered error, for otherwise it could not have exercised that discretion it is said to have in such instances.
In Syllabus 4 of Long v. People’s Department Store, 95 N.W.2d 904 (N.D.1959), this court said:
In considering motion for a new trial on ground of insufficiency of evidence, trial courts are not confined to a consideration of whether the verdict and judgment are supported by substantial evidence, but they may, with view to promoting the ends of justice, weigh evidence and, within certain limitations, act upon their own judgment with reference to its weight and credibility.
In Aylmer v. Adams, 30 N.D. 514, 153 N.W. 419, 421 (1915), the court used different language to express the discretion a trial court has when deciding a motion for new trial based on a discretionary ground (in Aylmer, newly discovered evidence):
[T]he appellate court will uphold the ruling of the trial court granting a new trial on a discretionary ground, when it would have refused to disturb the decision of that court had a new trial been denied, and will sustain such order, even though the trial court would have been justified in reaching a different conclusion, and although the appellate court might deem a different conclusion the better one. (citations omitted; emphasis added)
In our most recent decision involving this issue (a decision which the majority has today without reference apparently overruled) this court, speaking through *533Judge Strutz, said in response to the petition for rehearing:
Judge Christianson, in the earlier case of Reid v. Ehr, 36 N.D. 552, at page 558, 162 N.W. 903, considered the same question. He pointed out that it should he remembered that it is the trial court, not the appellate court, which is vested with discretionary powers in determining a motion for new trial. The appellate court is limited to a consideration of whether the trial court clearly abused its discretion in ordering a new trial. The question presented to the appellate court is not whether a new trial should be granted or denied, but whether the trial court abused its judicial discretion in ordering a new trial. The test of what is within the discretion of a court has been suggested by the question: May the court properly decide the point either way? If not, then there clearly is no discretion to be exercised. If there is no latitude for the exercise of the power, it cannot be said that the power is discretionary. The only limitation upon the exercise of the discretionary power by the trial court in passing upon a motion for new trial is that such discretionary power must not be abused.
In determining the question presented on the appeal from the order granting the new trial and on this petition for rehearing, we must remember the position of advantage which the trial court had. He saw the plaintiff and heard his story; he also saw all of the witnesses and heard their versions of what occurred. All of these things place him in a favored position in passing upon the motion for new trial on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence. The trial court, in the-exercise of his sound, judicial discretion, and in the interests of justice, determined that a new trial should be granted in this case. We, as the appellate court, cannot say on the record before us that the trial court abused that discretion. From the record, the jury could properly have decided this case either way. Therefore, it was proper for the trial court to exercise his discretion. * * *
Sucher v. Oliver-Mercer Electric, 151 N.W.2d 321, 328 (1967).
Without restating the evidence in this case, it would be fair to say that the jury could have decided either (1) that the plaintiff’s driver was contributorily negligent in failing to sound his horn, which very reasonably could have alerted the driver of the defendant’s vehicle and thus have prevented him from turning his vehicle toward the left, or in failing to keep a proper lookout; or (2) that the jury could have decided that the plaintiff’s driver was not contributorily negligent. That being the case, the trial court, in exercising its discretion, could also have decided either way without abusing that discretion.
There is another reason that the trial court could reasonably have given in this case to justify the granting of a new trial, and that is the unsatisfactory state of the evidence — a state which might reasonably be corrected in a new trial.
In Syllabus 1 of Zachmeier v. Oil Exploration Co., 76 N.W.2d 533 (N.D.1956), in sustaining an order granting new trial because of the unsatisfactory state of the evidence, this court said:
There is a strong presumption in favor of an order granting a new trial on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict, and the order will not be disturbed in the absence of clear showing that there was an abuse of discretion in granting it.
The evidence is unsatisfactory in the instant case as it relates to position and movement on the highway of the defendant’s vehicle at the time the plaintiff’s driver caused the plaintiff’s vehicle to enter the south lane to pass the defendant’s vehicle. It is reasonable to presume that the evidence relating thereto could be clarified on retrial.
*534Accordingly, I believe that the trial court’s order granting the motion for a new trial was an exercise of sound judicial discretion in the interests of justice, and that the order should have been affirmed.
PAULSON, J., concurs.