Court Opinion

ID: 9705651
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:14:59.831875+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:13.258857
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Underwood, specially concurring: While I concur that a new trial is necessary, I do so for reasons other than those expressed in the opinion of the court. That opinion remands for a new trial solely because the jury apparently misunderstood or disregarded the court’s instructions. I would grant a new trial because, once the special finding is set aside, there remains no verdict upon which judgment can be entered. That a jury’s special finding of fact controls an inconsistent general verdict is established law in this State. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1963, chap. 110, par. 65; North Shore Sanitary District v. Schulik, 12 Ill.2d 309.) In such cases the former is the verdict of the jury and judgment may be entered thereon; the latter is a nullity. The reason underlying section 65 is that a jury more clearly understands a particularized special interrogatory than a composite of all of the questions in a case, and that, therefore, an answer thereto should prevail over an inconsistent general verdict. This renders the inconsistent general verdict of no force and effect whatsoever even though the special finding is subsequently vacated. I agree that the trial judge may, on his own motion, set aside a special finding as against the manifest weight of the evidence. His action in doing so, however, does not revive the general verdict. Once the special finding has been invalidated, a new trial must necessarily result, since, the inconsistent general verdict being a nullity, there then is no verdict before the court upon which it may act.