Court Opinion

ID: 9538932
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:44:07.794463+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:58:17.075963
License: Public Domain

LAWSON, Justice
(dissenting).
The majority opinion holds that the trial court correctly set aside the verdict because the juror Cole sat on the case.
It seems to me that the verdict should not have been set aside unless it was made to appear that Cole’s feelings toward the Birmingham Electric Company, as expressed subsequent to the trial of this case, could have worked to the prejudice of the plaintiff.
The verdict was in favor of the plaintiff. Hence it is obvious that any friendly feeling which Cole may have had towards the Birmingham Electric Company did not prevent him from acting on the evidence as he saw it and casting his ballot in favor of a recovery by the' plaintiff. Of course, Cole could have agreed to a verdict in favor of plaintiff and yet his friendly feeling toward the defendant, Birmingham Electric Company, could have caused him to seek to keep down the amount of the verdict. However, the trial court, who saw and heard the witnesses, has expressly refused to set aside the verdict on the ground of inadequacy of damages.
It seems to me that under these circumstances it is conclusive that the fact that Cole sat on the jury in this case did not result in prejudice to the plaintiff. I am constrained, therefore, to dissent from the holding of the majority, which I understand to be that the trial court correctly set aside the verdict because of Cole’s presence on the jury.