Court Opinion

ID: 9625971
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:57:24.348415+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:18.459803
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
dissenting.
A jury is unlettered in legal procedure. It has only its common sense, collective experience, the evidence and argument presented to it, and the court’s charge to guide it in discharging its duty.
In this case involving multiple defendants, the jury was asked to consider the separate negligence vel non of two individuals and, if there was negligence, two separate types of damage. The second type was dependent on the first, and the jury was informed that, with respect to the first, other defendants had already agreed to pay plaintiff a half million dollars. The jury was told how to calculate in this fact, and it was clear to counsel and the court. It was clear to the jury as well. It was also clear to counsel and the court what the jury was to record on the verdict form, but they misunderstood the jury’s message.
When the jury verdict is read in conjunction with the court’s charge, it is consistent with the jurors’ explanation of their written communication: the jury found that plaintiff was entitled to compensatory damages of $500,000 which the jury knew was already forthcoming from the other defendants. Since they had to show that compensatory damages were awarded, in order to support their award of exemplary damages, they indicated this finding. They had been instructed, after expressly asking, that exemplary damages could not be awarded if they found no compensatory damages. Thus, if they had indicated “0” in compensatory damages, the exemplary damages would have been unauthorized. If they had indicated less than $500,000 as compensatory damages, they thought their award of exemplary damages would be reduced by the difference.
A jury poll would not have uncovered this explanation, as the jurors would have answered “yes” to the questions posed. Their sworn statements, taken in deposition form, do not impeach the verdict but rather explain and sustain it, so they are not counter to the rule contained in OCGA § 9-10-9 but rather conform to it. Setzer v. Latimer, 40 Ga. App. 247 (149 SE 281) (1929); Fidelity Nat. Bank v. Kneller, 194 Ga. App. 55, 59 (390 SE2d 55) (1989). The eleven jurors who gave statements unanimously and independently stated that plaintiff was to receive zero from Dr. Rosenbaum in compensatory damages. Eleven citizens (the twelfth juror preferred to talk directly to the court, which apparently was deemed unnecessary) who worked long and hard on this case agreed that plaintiff was entitled to a total of *792$500,000 in compensatory damages and that is what they wrote in their verdict. They knew that he had already been assured that amount from co-defendants, which was not reflected in any verdict. Their explanation of the meaning of the “$500,000” on the verdict form is entirely harmonious with what they had been told about plaintiff’s recovery and the instructions of the court. By returning the exact amount of the previous settlement, they indicated the gross amount of the compensatory damages, inferring that the net amount was to be zero.
The sworn statements of the jurors in this case do not seek to undermine the deliberative process or the integrity of the jury or its work. Consideration of them does not deserve the “important public interests” served by the rule against the impeachment of verdicts, as listed in Spencer v. State, 260 Ga. 640, 643 (3) (398 SE2d 179) (1990). The jurors merely clarify their verdict, as the trial court recognized.
Saint v. Ryan, 114 Ga. App. 489 (3) (151 SE2d 826) (1966), is not controlling to the extent that it held that the verdict could not be amended to reflect substantive correction. Here the verdict was not amended; it was explained and, the judgment having been partially nonconforming (see OCGA § 9-12-9), a new and limited trial was granted. The court deemed the compensatory part of the verdict illegal because, as originally construed, it recorded gross rather than net compensation and left extant the legal parts, i.e., the findings as to negligence and the exemplary damages. This it was permitted to do. OCGA § 9-12-8. Saint also differs because the complicating factor of exemplary damages was not present in that case, so the jury was not prompted to show compensatory damages in order to provide the prerequisite for the exemplary damages. The jury in Saint was simply and unequivocally told to deduct $2,000 from any amount they found plaintiff entitled to; in this case, the jury was told it needed to find compensatory damages in order to award exemplary damages, and it did so by finding that the amount previously agreed to be paid plaintiff fully compensated plaintiff. In Saint there was no reason not to deduct the $2,000 and so reflect on the verdict form; here there was good reason, i.e., the necessity to show the compensatory damages to support exemplary damages.
There was error in the lack of clarity, from the jury’s perspective, in the court’s instructions, which carried through to the written recordation of the verdict and so into the judgment which reflected the court’s misconstruction of the true verdict. There was not error in the court’s rectification of the same by the grant of a new trial on the issue of compensatory damages, the court apparently having concluded that the change would have been one of substance and not of form so that the verdict could not be amended under the authority of OCGA § 9-12-7.
*793Near the end of the court’s long charge, the court instructed the jury on compensatory and punitive damages and stated, just before it discussed the verdict form: “I further charge you that if you find that the plaintiff is entitled to recover punitive damages, you should not deduct anything from that [compensatory] amount.” With respect to the verdict form, it instructed in part: “If you determine from a preponderance of the evidence that the plaintiff is entitled to recover from the defendants in this case, then you would mark that choice and fill in the blank the amount of compensatory damages for which you find the plaintiff is entitled to recover. ... If you find that the plaintiff is entitled to recover against the defendants and determine the amount of compensatory damages, you must then determine whether or not you find that the plaintiff is also entitled to recover exemplary damages.”
Earlier the court had instructed the jury to determine the “total” amount plaintiff was entitled to, which it did in its deliberations and recorded on the verdict form. The court did not make clear that the net, not the gross, was to be recorded. The form did not ask for recordation of the net amount to be awarded; it simply asked for the amount of compensatory damages “against the Defendants.” In order for exemplary damages to be authorized, the jury had to show that it was awarding the $500,000 compensatory damages and it did so, recognizing from what it was told that this would in the end net to zero because of the settlement with the other parties. Had it shown “zero” compensatory damages, the prerequisite for exemplary damages would have been missing, and the verdict would be void on its face.
Insofar as there being no objections by defendant to the charge, the recharge, or the verdict form on this point, that should not be controlling because these matters were not objectionable. There simply was a conveyance of an idea as to what to write on the verdict form which was understood by the jury in one way and to counsel and the court in another way, and it did not become evident until after the trial.
The trial court was prompted to reflect on the verdict by the motion for new trial and, by expressly invoking OCGA § 51-12-12 as amended in 1987, concluded that its construction of the verdict so as to award an additional $500,000 would constitute excessive compensatory damages inconsistent with the preponderance of the evidence in the case. It specifically utilized the remedy provided by subsection (b) of that Code section. If this basis was wrong and the court was not authorized to conclude that recovery of one million dollars was excessive, then OCGA § 5-5-50 controls. See OCGA § 51-12-12 (c).
We are not authorized under OCGA § 5-5-50 to disturb the presiding judge’s first grant of a new trial because appellant has not shown an abuse of discretion or that the verdict of $500,000 compen*794satory damages, as the verdict was construed in the judgment, was required. There is evidence in the trial and in connection with the motion to support the movant, and a verdict of $500,000 on top of the $500,000 settlement is not demanded for plaintiff. See Winn Dixie Stores v. Whaley, 127 Ga. App. 381, 382 (1) (193 SE2d 279) (1972); Wellbeloved v. Wellbeloved, 209 Ga. 709, 710 (1) (75 SE2d 424) (1953). The trial court has the power to correct errors and grant new trials, OCGA § 5-5-1 (a), and it may do so under OCGA § 5-5-20 “when the verdict ... is found contrary to evidence and the principles of justice and equity.” See also OCGA § 5-5-21. These are addressed to the sound legal discretion of the trial judge. Kendrick v. Kendrick, 218 Ga. 460 (1) (128 SE2d 496) (1962). The court obviously concluded that as originally construed, the verdict fell into that category. I cannot agree that it was contrary to the “law . . . usages and customs of courts,” in the words of OCGA § 5-5-1 (a), for the court to exercise this power when all the evidence shows that the jury’s verdict was misconstrued and an injustice will otherwise result. A “verdict is a ‘true saying’ . . . [A] verdict delivered into court by a jury, which does not comport with the findings of that jury, is not a true saying. It would not speak the truth as the jury found it. The jury’s oath is to give a ‘true verdict.’ A verdict declaring contrary to the findings of the jury is not a true verdict. To hold otherwise would be to treat a solemn legal investigation as a game where victory may be won by inadvertence and methods that are worse.” Groves v. State, 162 Ga. 161, 162 (132 SE 769) (1926).
Decided September 9, 1992
Reconsideration denied October 13, 1992
Orr & Edwards, W. Fred Orr II, James G. Edwards II, for appellant.
Allen & Peters, Hunter S. Allen, Jr., Bradley C. Reeves, Gary R. McCain, for appellees.