Court Opinion

ID: 9794760
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:11:06.830744+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:19:50.074188
License: Public Domain

Ott, J.
(dissenting) — We have consistently held that a motion for a new trial is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court. The exercise of that discretion will not be disturbed except for a manifest abuse. A much stronger showing of an abuse of discretion will ordinarily be required to set aside an order granting a new trial than one denying a new trial. McUne v. Fuqua, 42 Wn. (2d) 65, 77, 253 P. (2d) 632 (1953); Bystrom v. Purkey, 2 Wn. (2d) 67, 71, 97 P. (2d) 158 (1939).
Only two days’ trial time had been allotted by the court for plaintiffs to present their evidence to prove the existence of an oral partnership extending over a period of approximately fifteen years, and to establish proof of an oral agreement to make a will, and for the defendant to resist such evidence and to prove the allegations of a cross-complaint in which five promissory notes were involved. Before the entry of judgment at the close of the two days’ trial, the court granted a new trial.
Rule of Superior Court 16, 34A Wn. (2d) 118, as amended, effective July 1, 1954, provides in part:
“In all cases wherein the trial court grants a motion for a new trial, it shall, in the order granting the motion, give definite reasons of law and facts for so doing.”
The court gave the following reasons for granting a new trial: (1) that the plaintiffs may have been hampered in *314the orderly presentation of their case, in that only two days were allotted for trial; (2) that the ruling (on the judgment) “was made by the court without having actually examined those [partnership] records”; (3) that “such rulings deprived plaintiffs of the right to put on their full case”; and (4) that “it further appearing that such action [the court’s own ruling] was an irregularity in the proceedings by which the plaintiffs were prevented from having a fair trial.”
The majority reverse the trial court’s decision for the reason that “the ground for the granting of the new trial is not supported by ‘definite reasons of law and facts.’ ” I do not agree. There is no question but that the granting of a new trial by the trial court is supported by law. The two grounds upon which the trial court relied are legal grounds, (1) irregularity in the proceedings by which the plaintiffs were prevented from having a fair trial, and (2) that substantial justice had not been done. RCW 4.76.020 [of. Rem. Rev. Stat. (Sup.), § 399] and Rule of Superior Court 16, 34A Wn. (2d) 117.
Further, the record discloses that only two days were allowed in which to try the case. The fact of this trial time limitation is established by the record. The learned trial judge, with many years of trial experience, found as a fact that the allotted time was insufficient, and that the plaintiffs, because of the time limitation, may have been hampered in properly presenting their case.
We are here concerned with whether the record'discloses a strong showing of a manifest abuse of the trial court’s exercise of discretion in the granting of a new trial. The judge who tried the case concluded that substantial justice had not been done for two reasons, and that two irregularities in the proceedings had deprived plaintiffs of a fair trial. In my opinion, any one of the reasons given is sufficient to sustain the court’s exercise of discretion in granting a new trial.
For the reasons stated, the order appealed from should be affirmed.