Court Opinion

ID: 9844176
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:58:31.7353+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:29.363183
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in all of the Court’s opinion, except part IV (The District Court Did Not Err in Denying the ISBA’s Motions for New Trial). In my view, in considering the motion for new trial, the trial court should have considered the amount of the jury’s verdict, rather than the reduced damage award the trial court arrived at by granting judgment notwithstanding the verdict. By first reducing the jury’s verdict, the trial court inappropriately mixed its functions under I.R.C.P. 50(b) and its functions under I.R.C.P. 59(a)(5) and (6). I do not understand how the trial court could assess the excessiveness of the amount awarded by the jury or whether the jury’s award was not supported by sufficient evidence or was against the law, when the trial court only assessed these factors in relationship to the trial court’s award, not the jury’s award.