Court Opinion

ID: 9520254
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:34:50.412898+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:45:51.072450
License: Public Domain

RUCKER, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I fully concur with the majority on issue I. The Fischers presented sufficient evidence establishing that stray voltage proximately caused injury to their herd of cows.
On issue II, I concur with that portion of the majority opinion which addresses Tip-mont’s damages argument on the merits. I dissent to the remainder because the majority has imposed a requirement on Ind. Trial Rule 59 which simply is nonexistent. Although it does not say so in express terms, the majority’s opinion can only be read as requiring that a motion to correct error must be filed whenever a damage award is challenged on appeal. That is not the law. So long as a party is challenging a damage award on grounds other than it is excessive or inadequate, a motion to correct error is not required. In that regard I disagree with the majority’s view that there is a no distinction between challenging a damage award as unsupported by the evidence versus challenging an award as excessive or inadequate. There is a distinction, albeit subtle.
As to issue III, I dissent. Under this heading the majority has resolved the issues raised by Tipmont on grounds of waiver. This court has a long history of examining substantive claims “waiver notwithstanding.” This was a difficult and complicated case, tried over a period of a year and two months, generating a 9,457 page record contained in 40 volumes. In my view Tipmont deserves the benefit of the majority’s analysis on the merits, rather than a resolution of the issues on procedural grounds. Further, I am not convinced that the objections Tipmont raised *95at trial were inadequate to preserve error for review.