Court Opinion

ID: 9601629
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:48:11.986077+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:42:23.097009
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
concurring specially:
Had the appellant herein articulated before both the trial court and this Court the argument and analysis which the dissenting opinion of Justice Bistline makes with regard to a motion for new trial pursuant to Rule 59(a)(5), the trial court no doubt would have articulated his reasons for denying the motion more in keeping with the language of I.R.C.P. 59(a)(5), and the majority opinion would no doubt have addressed that issue more directly. However, the appellant did not do so, stating the issue on appeal to be “whether, under the facts as shown herein, damages in the total amount of $1,000 as promulgated in that judgment dated December 7,1976, are inadequate as a matter of law.” No issue was presented as to the denial of the motion for new trial, although in the course of the argument section of its brief appellant does state that, “It is also plaintiffs’ contention that the Trial Court erred in denying plaintiffs’ motion for a modification of judgment or in the alternative for a new trial.” The only argument for that contention are two sentences which essentially state the same thing — that “[a] jury verdict which manifests disregard for the plain instructions of the Court on issues of damages and arbitrarily ignores the proven elements of damage should be set aside upon a motion for a new trial.” Thus, the only suggestion that appellant was asserting on appeal that the trial court erred in failing to grant a new trial based upon the grounds of “inadequate damages, appearing to have been given under the influence of passion or prejudice,” I.R.C.P. 59(a)(5), was the mere numerical reference to that rule at the end of the motion. Reading the trial court’s decision and order denying the motion for new trial as a whole, it seems to me that he had in mind the requirements of Rule 59(a)(5) when he said that “it appears to me that there is no indication of passion or prejudice influencing the jury’s verdict . .” While it might have been better for. the trial court to articulate his determination in the exact language of I.R.C.P. 59(a)(5), it is *275clear from the reading of the entire decision that he considered the I.R.C.P. 59(a)(5) grounds for a motion for new trial as Justice Bistline has cogently and exhaustively set out in his dissent. Certainly, if the appellant’s motion before the trial court and brief on appeal can be fairly said to have adequately raised that issue, the trial court’s decision appears to me to have adequately met it.