Court Opinion

ID: 9778988
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:31:18.59128+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:18.522340
License: Public Domain

On Petition to Rehear.
Burnett, Justice.
The Friersons have filed a courteous and dignified petition to rehear in this case. They say that this petition should be granted:
“(a) Because Shuey has now been granted two trials upon the same cause of action, whereas, as a matter of law, she was entitled to only one trial; and,
“ (b) Because the judgment of the Circuit Court and the Court of Appeals in favor of Shuey and against the Friersons in pursuance of the second trial in the Circuit Court is affirmed, whereas, as a matter of law, the same should have been reversed and the judgment obtained by Shuey against the Friersons in pursuance of the first trial in the Circuit 'Court should thereupon have been reinstated and affirmed.”
In the outset we are forced to say that there is no new authority nor argument made in this petition that was not advanced and very thoroughly considered by us when the matter was before us originally. Under such circum*243stances we cannot and should not consider the matter unless we conclude that our first position was erroneous. We very thoroughly considered these arguments, that are now made, and have again considered them in view of the petition to rehear and must adhere to the original opinion herein.
A brief history of this lawsuit, it seems-to us, is a sufficient answer to the errors here assigned as .above quoted.
Mrs. Shuey sued the Friersons and their lessee, one Ayers, in the Circuit Court. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the lessee Ayers and against the lessors Frier-sons and against the City of Columbia. The Friersons and the City of Columbia appealed to the Court of Appeals where their appeal was sustained by that Court. That court likewise reinstated Mrs. Shuey’s cause of action against the lessee, Ayers. Ayers alone petitioned this Court for certiorari. The certiorari was granted and the cause dismissed as to him. The Friersons did not petition for certiorari and we did not have before us the action as to them by the Court of Appeals or otherwise, neither did Mrs. Shuey petition us for certiorari. The ease was remanded by the Court of Appeals for a new trial as to the Friersons. On this second trial the jury again rendered judgment against the owners of the property, the lessors, for approximately three times as much as they had given judgment at the first trial. This judgment was duly appealed to the Court of Appeals and that court affirmed and it was then that the Friersons petitioned this Court for certiorari. The petition was granted and we in .a unanimous opinion affirmed that court, as is shown by the original opinion herein.
The burden of the petition to rehear is that we should now reduce the judgment against the Friersons on the second trial to the same amount as the judgment ren*244dered by the first jury. We very thoroughly considered this at some length before our original opinion was prepared and for the reasons therein stated we concluded that the present verdict was not excessive and that we should not reduce the amount of the judgment.
For the reasons herein stated the petition to rehear must be overruled.