Court Opinion

ID: 9753224
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:04:08.696466+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:32.304263
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Chief Justice Bell :
The lower Court granted a new trial to Rockwell-Standard Corporation limited to the issue of damages because the verdict was excessive. Our Court reverses and reinstates the jury’s verdict because “the jury’s *293verdict is fully supported by the evidence”. Furthermore, this Court for the first time in its history requires the trial Judge (or lower Court) to state his (or its) reasons why he (or it) believes the verdict was excessive.
We all agree with the well-recognized principle that the grant or refusal of a new trial because of the ex-cessiveness of the verdict is peculiarly within the discretion of the trial Court, and will not be reversed unless there is an abuse of discretion or an error of law which controlled the outcome of the case. Connolly v. Phila. Trans. Co., 420 Pa. 280, 216 A. 2d 60; Guzman v. Bloom, 413 Pa. 576, 198 A. 2d 499; Chambers v. Montgomery, 411 Pa. 339, 192 A. 2d 355.
For many years I have advocated and urged trial Courts to state their reasons for granting or denying a new trial. However, I believe that where a new trial is granted by the trial Judge or lower Court because of an excessive verdict, this should not be mandatory. If a trial Court gives the reasons which induced it to make the Order it did, this would undoubtedly enable an appellate Court to more intelligently analyze and better judge the lower Court’s decision. However, in many cases this would likely expose the trial Judge to personal hostility, because oftentimes he would have to state, as the reason for his Order, that he did not believe the plaintiff or the defendant or one or more of the witnesses, or that such-and-such witness seemed to be confused, or that he (or they) was inexperienced or not convincing. While this would, I repeat, greatly aid an appellate Court, we must remember when we come to consider the question of an abuse of discretion that a trial Judge sees and hears the witnesses and, therefore, is in a far better position than an appellate Court to form a fair and just opinion on the point of excessiveness of the verdict.
*294Even more important, the Majority’s reversal of the lower Court’s Order in this case, “because the jury’s verdict was fully supported by the evidence”, does not fall within the well-established legal principle which the Majority itself reiterates, i.e., “that the grant or refusal of a new trial ... is peculiarly within the discretion of the trial court. ...”
I would therefore affirm the Order of the lower Court which granted a new trial limited solely to the-question of damages.