Court Opinion

ID: 9701379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:17:30.500246+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:23.073784
License: Public Domain

On Petition for Rehearing
PEDERSON, Justice.
The jury returned a verdict for Anderson. Kroh moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, for a new trial. Contrary to the requirement of Rule 50(c), NDRCivP, the trial court, in granting the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, failed to make a conditional ruling on the alternative motion for new trial. Kroh made no objection to this omission on the part of the trial judge.
On the appeal to this court Anderson sought a reversal of the order granting judgment notwithstanding the verdict and the judgment itself. In her brief to this court she asked:
“... Alternatively, if for some reason judgment is not entered in accordance with the jury verdict, a new trial should be held with the jury properly instructed according to the correct law regarding suppliers of products and landlords, and the jury should not be restricted to issues of negligence.”
*364Kroh’s argument to this court did not respond to this alternative remedy suggested by Anderson. Instead, on a petition for rehearing pursuant to Rule 40, NDRAppP, Kroh suggests that we have overlooked or misapprehended the point in failing to remand with directions that the trial court now make a determination upon Kroh’s alternative motion for new trial. Kroh relies upon this court’s statement in Johnson v Frelich, 153 N.W.2d 775, 779 (N.D.1967):
“This being true [that the trial court granted judgment notwithstanding the verdict but apparently deemed it not necessary to pass on the motion for new trial], justice requires that the defendant be permitted to obtain a ruling of the trial court on his motion for a new trial.”
Without a discussion of the type of circumstances which would warrant a remanding by this court to permit the moving party to press promptly for a ruling from the trial court on an alternative motion for new trial, this court, in Johnson v. Frelich, supra, relied significantly upon Chicago, M., St. P. & P. R. Co. v. Johnston’s Fuel Liners, 122 N.W.2d 140 (N.D.1963), which, at Syllabus 5, held specifically that:
“Where a motion is made for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict and, in the alternative, for a new trial and the trial court grants the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict but does not pass conditionally on the motion for a new trial, as required by Rule 50(c), N.D.R.Civ.P., on reversal of the trial court on appeal, the case may be remanded to permit the moving party to press promptly for a ruling from the trial court on his motion for a new trial.” [Emphasis supplied.]
When we peruse the body of the opinion, we find the conclusory statement that “justice requires” an opportunity for the mov-ant to obtain a trial court ruling upon the alternative motion for new trial. The holding in Johnson v. Frelich, supra, at Syllabus 4, likewise said that the case “may” be remanded and in the body of the opinion it stated that “justice requires” a remand.
We requested Anderson to respond to Kroh’s petition. In that response Anderson points out a number of options available to this court, based upon federal court interpretations of Federal Rule 50 from which the North Dakota rule is copied, as well as our own previous decisions. We discussed some of these matters in the opinion on Petition for Rehearing in Riebe v. Riebe, 252 N.W.2d 175, 179 (N.D.1977). Possible alternatives are:
(1) We may, if justice requires it, remand for a trial court ruling on the motion as we have done in Johnson v. Frelich, supra, and Chicago, M., St. P. & P. R. Co. v. Johnston’s Fuel Liners, supra, and in other cases.
(2) We may, “where the motion for judgment raises the same questions as those raised by the alternative motion for a new trial,” refuse to permit the trial court to consider the motion for new trial on the basis that reversal of the judgment ipso facto disposes of the grounds for a new trial. See Annot., 69 ALR2d 449, § 36(b).
(3) We may adopt the legal fiction that the failure of the trial court to rule on the alternative motion for new trial constitutes a denial of the motion and we would proceed to determine whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying the motion. See 5 C.J.S. Appeal & Error § 1494; Sadler v. T. J. Hughes Lumber Company, Inc., 537 P.2d 454, 459 (Okl.App.1975); and Mays v. Pioneer Lumber Corporation, 502 F.2d 106 (4th Cir. 1974).
(4) We may deem the failure of the mov-ant in the trial court to press for a ruling on his alternative motion to be a waiver of the motion. See Medical West Building Corporation v. E. L. Zoernig & Co., 414 S.W.2d 287, 295 (Mo. 1967).
The purpose in providing for the alternative motions and requiring the trial court to rule on both is, of course, to avoid bifurcated appeals. See Committee Notes, Rule 50, NDRCivP. Our past decisions may be interpreted to allow this purpose to be easily frustrated. To prevent that and, in light of a continuing increase in this court’s case load, judicial economy requires that *365we, in the future, consider any motion not pursued in the trial court abandoned unless justice requires otherwise. This type of rule is familiar and will serve well the above stated purpose. Thus we are, in effect, giving it a “Sunburst” type of treatment as we did in Kitto v. Minot Park District, 224 N.W.2d 795, 804 (N.D. 1974), and in other cases.
For this case, however, fairness requires that we continue to follow the tradition established by this court’s previous rulings, and especially in light of Anderson’s suggestion in the original brief, filed on her behalf, that a new trial was an alternative. We remand for consideration of the unresolved motion for new trial. The mandate shall issue forthwith.
ERICKSTAD, C. J., and VANDE WALLE, J., concur.