Court Opinion

ID: 4733390
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2021-08-12 02:57:39.559241+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:08:09.301609
License: Public Domain

Dunbar, C. J.
(dissenting). — I dissent. The plaintiff has a constitutional right to have the questions of fact involved in his case submitted to the discretion of a jury. The amount of damages which he sustained is as purely a question of fact as any question in the case. I do not deny the right of the court to set aside a verdict when it plainly appears that the verdict was the result of passion or prejudice; but I do most earnestly protest against the court substituting its judgment for the judgment of the jury; and basing its conclusion that the jury was controlled by passion or prejudice on the simple fact that the verdict rendered by the jury was a larger verdict than the court would have rendered if the question had been originally submitted to its discretion. Such an assumption by the courts virtually annuls the right of trial by jury. Practically the question of damages may as well be submitted to the court in the first instance.