Court Opinion

ID: 9586529
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:12:25.586991+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:42.217281
License: Public Domain

Goolsby, Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent.
This is an action for wrongful death brought against Robertson Gilchrist Construction Company, Inc., by Emma Williams, as Administratrix of the Estate of Johnnie Williams. The jury returned a verdict for actual damages in Williams’ favor in the amount of $170,590. Williams, however, moved for an additur or, in the alternative, for a new trial on the issue of damages.
The trial court granted a new trial to Williams should Robertson Gilchrist elect not to pay an additur of $54,410. The trial court did not prescribe a time limit within which Robertson Gilchrist was to make its choice.
Robertson Gilchrist immediately appealed without electing whether to pay the additur suggested by the trial court. After serving its notice of appeal, Robertson Gilchrist paid Williams the sum of $170,590.
I would dismiss Robertson Gilchrist’s appeal as premature because Robertson Gilchrist has yet to choose between paying the additur or submitting to a new trial. See McBroom v. Hill, 365 So. (2d) 63 (Miss.1978) (an appeal from an order granting an additur or a new trial held premature where the additur had not been accepted and no new trial had been held *157because the issue of damages remained unresolved in the trial court); cf. Clarkson v. Crawford, 285 Pa. 299, 132 A. 350 (1926) (a plaintiffs appeal from an order granting a defendant a new trial unless the plaintiff remitted a named amount of damages held premature where the appeal was taken before the plaintiff elected whether to agree to accept the lesser sum since the plaintiff could not complain of being injured by the granting of new trial until the plaintiff refused to take the smaller amount). I recognize that the appellate courts of this state have entertained similar appeals; however, neither the Supreme Court nor this court has addressed the issue of whether the grant of such a motion is appealable where the party required to make the election has accepted neither the additur nor the alternative of a new trial. Graham v. Whitaker, 282 S.C. 393, 321 S.E. (2d) 40 (1984); Jones v. Ingles Supermarkets, Inc., 293 S.C. 490, 361 S.E. (2d) 775 (Ct. App. 1987); Chiappetta v. Orr, 293 S.C. 250, 359 S.E. (2d) 530 (Ct. App. 1987); cf. Middleton & Co. v. Atlantic Coast Line R.R. Co., 133 S.C. 23, 130 S.E. 552 (1925) (a defendant may appeal the denial of a motion for a new trial or new trial nisi and the remedy of the plaintiff is exactly the same where the verdict is for an amount less than the plaintiff conceives it should have been); Thomas v. Seay, 295 S.C. 455, 369 S.E. (2d) 660 (Ct. App. 1988) (a defendant’s appeal from an order granting a motion for a new trial additur does not waive the defendant’s right to a new trial following an affirmance of the order on appeal).
The payment by Robertson Gilchrist to Williams after service of its notice of appeal of the amount of the jury’s verdict cannot be viewed as either an acceptance or a rejection either of the additur or of a new trial since the payment can suggest either that Robertson Gilchrist has declined to accept the additur or that it has declined the alternative of a new trial.