Court Opinion

ID: 9854154
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:02:05.479748+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:57.629136
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
specially concurring.
PART I.
I have concurred in the opinion of Chief Justice Bakes, primarily because of my confidence that the district judge will arrive at the correct response to this Court’s direction to rule again on the motion for new trial by excluding that matter which Justice Bakes has delineated in the final paragraph of the Court’s opinion. Nevertheless I feel compelled to state that the Court could be heading this case in a more direct route.
Assuming that the district court reasons anew as directed, and continues to believe that there should be, and accordingly grants, a new trial, that order will be just as appealable as the order which the Court today has now reversed. It would seem that interminable delays are a bane to the administration of justice, and many are the cases which have so observed. If commanding a majority, my preference would be that we allow the order awarding a new trial to stand; otherwise put, that we affirm. Were that to be our chosen course, both the plaintiffs and Dr. Carroll would benefit by not having this controversy drag on. A trial can readily be had. If, as might seem indicated by the results of the first trial, the doctor again gets the jury’s nod, it is highly likely that the controversy will be put to rest, assuming that respective counsel are careful to avoid interjecting prejudicial error during the trial proceedings.
Moreover, there is additional good reason for proceeding as I suggest. The Court has in recent years wrestled with a number of appellate cases wherein we reviewed grants or denials of motions for a new trial. Much law has been written, but seldom have all members of the Court agreed as to exactly what the law is. This has been recently brought rather forcibly to our attention by an opinion thirty-one pages in length written by an eminent district judge of the First Judicial District. On any view of the facts of the case before us, my view of the state of the law in Idaho *380is such that our opinion today could very well be written to uphold the district court’s grant of a new trial. Briefly I will demonstrate, and in doing so will accept the facts as stated by the Chief Justice, and apply to those facts the case law with which the Court has been heavily concerned.
PART II.
Multiple issues are raised on appeal. Each will be discussed in turn.
CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS
Appellants first assert that I.R.C.P. 59(a)(6), as presently interpreted and applied, violates their constitutional right to a jury trial. In pertinent part, I.R.C.P. 59(a) reads as follows:
Rule 59(a). New trial — Amendment of judgment — Grounds.—A new trial may be granted to all or any of the parties and on all or part of the issues in an action for any of the following reasons:
6. Insufficiency of the evidence to justify the verdict or other decision, or that it is against the law.
7____ Any motion based on subdivisions 6 or 7 must set forth the factual grounds therefor with particularity____
It has already been decided that I.R.C.P. 59(a)(6) does not violate the constitutional right to a jury trial. Concerning the jury trial right under the United States Constitution, “it is well settled that the Seventh Amendment does not apply to the states in so far as the right to a jury trial in civil cases is concerned.” Sheets v. Agro-West, Inc., 104 Idaho 880, 884, 664 P.2d 787, 791 (Ct.App.1983). And regarding the right to a jury trial under our state Constitution, in Quick v. Crane, 111 Idaho 759, 766, 727 P.2d 1187, 1195 (1986), we stated that the trial judge's “authority to set aside the verdict on a new trial motion is supported by clear precedent at common law. Indeed, far from being a denigration or usurpation of the right to a trial by jury, trial judges have always been an integral part of that right.” As further explained in Sheets v. Agro-West, Inc., 104 Idaho at 884, 664 P.2d at 791:
The constitutional right of trial by jury has been interpreted to secure that right as it existed at common law when the Idaho Constitution was adopted. [Citations omitted.] Before Idaho became a state, our territorial Supreme Court had recognized the trial court’s discretionary function in ruling upon new trial motions____ Thus the constitutional right to trial by jury in civil cases, under the state constitution, is subject to the trial court’s discretionary power to grant a new trial.
I.R.C.P. 59(a)(6) does not violate the constitutional right to a jury trial under either the United States Constitution or the Idaho Constitution.
NEW TRIAL STANDARD
At the hearing before this Court appellants also argued that the standard now employed in ruling on directed verdicts and j.n.o.v.’s, i.e., whether there is substantial competent evidence to sustain the jury’s verdict, Stephens v. Stearns, 106 Idaho 249, 678 P.2d 41 (1984), should also apply to analyzing motions for a new. trial. That argument is without merit. “[T]he two motions have wholly distinct functions and different standards govern their allowance.” Quick v. Crane, 111 Idaho at 766, 727 P.2d at 1194. As succinctly stated in Blaine v. Byers, 91 Idaho 665, 671, 429 P.2d 397, 403 (1967), I.R.C.P. 59(a)(6) permits a new trial when the trial court
is satisfied the verdict is not supported by, or is contrary to, the evidence, or is convinced the verdict is not in accord with the clear weight of the evidence and that the ends of justice would be sub-served by vacating it, or when the verdict is not in accord with either law or justice.
This standard has recently been affirmed in Hinman v. Morrison-Knudsen Co., Inc., 115 Idaho 869, 771 P.2d 533 (1989), and we have been presented with no compelling reasons to deviate from it.
*381NEW TRIAL
Appellants’ major contention is that under the present interpretation of I.R.C.P. 59(a)(6) the district judge abused his discretion in granting a new trial. I disagree. The resolution of this issue is governed by our recent unanimous opinion in Hinman. The principal issue presented in Hinman was whether the trial court erred in granting plaintiff’s motion for a new trial after special jury verdicts had been returned in favor of the defendants. After the Hinman jury had returned its verdicts, plaintiff Hinman filed a motion for j.n.o.v. or, in the alternative, for a new trial, asserting, pursuant to I.R.C.P. 59(a)(6), that the evidence presented was insufficient to support the jury’s verdict. The trial judge granted Hinman’s motion for a new trial, basing his decision in part on I.R.C.P. 59(a)(6) and Blaine v. Byers, 91 Idaho 665, 429 P.2d 397 (1967).
In affirming the grant of a new trial in Hinman, this Court first noted that, as stated in Blaine, I.R.C.P. 59(a)(6) permits a new trial when the trial court
is satisfied the verdict is not supported by, or is contrary to, the evidence, or is convinced the verdict is not in accord with the clear weight of the evidence and that the ends of justice would be sub-served by vacating it, or when the verdict is not in accord with either law or justice. (Emphasis added.)
Hinman, 115 Idaho at 870, 771 P.2d at 534, quoting Blaine v. Byers, 91 Idaho at 671, 429 P.2d at 403. We then stated that “[t]his Court has held that a trial court has broad discretion as to a motion for a new trial, and that discretion will be upheld unless the trial court has manifestly abused its discretion.” Id. (citations omitted). In Hinman we held that the grant of the new trial should be affirmed where the record provided no basis for a conclusion that the trial judge manifestly abused his discretion.
The same analysis should apply in the instant situation. The trial judge here set forth the basis for granting plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial. After a thorough review of all the evidence, the trial court found:
1. The clear weight of the evidence shows: EGC [Eugene G. Carroll] failed to use a differential diagnosis in treating MH [Mary Heitz] for her bladder infections in the spring and summer of 1984. EGC failed to do follow-up tests or to refer MH to a specialist when this bladder infection continued; the applicable community standard of care was breached by these failures; such failures directly resulted in a delayed diagnosis of bladder cancer and to the spread of the cancer to other parts of the body of MH, including her shoulder and brain; such failures were a substantial factor in the death of MH in February, 1986; that MH died while at home recovering from cancer treatments on her brain when a large blood clot from her legs passed through her heart and into her lungs; that the risk of death from complications proximately caused by spread of the bladder cancer was foreseeable although the manner in which it occurred may not have been; that but for the spread of the cancer to the brain of MH, she would be alive at time of trial.
2. The clear weight of the evidence further shows: prior to her death, MH incurred medical expenses proximately caused by the spread of the bladder cancer and not caused by the cancer itself. This Court concludes the verdict was against the clear weight of the evidence.
This Court further finds: that the clear evidence at the trial showed a proximate cause between any alleged negligence of EGC and the death of MH; it is likely a new trial would lead to a different result; that Plaintiffs will probably recover at least the medical expenses incurred prior to death caused by the spread of the cancer.
R. 256-258.
With the above quoted statements in his memorandum decision and order, the trial judge adequately set forth the basis for his ruling granting the motion for a new trial and, on this record, there is no basis for *382ruling that the trial judge manifestly abused his discretion. The trial judge was convinced that “the verdict [was] not in accord with the clear weight of the evidence and that the ends of justice would be subserved by vacating it____” Blaine v. Byers, 91 Idaho at 671, 429 P.2d at 403. Accordingly, the trial judge’s grant of a new trial under I.R.C.P. 59(a)(6) should be affirmed. Accord Tibbs v. City of Sandpoint, 100 Idaho 667, 603 P.2d 1001 (1979) (the trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting plaintiffs’ motion for new trial on ground that verdict rendered in favor of defendants was against the weight of evidence and against the law).
I trust that the trial court’s reasoning on remand will continue to reflect the same thoughtfulness demonstrated by its prior decision granting a new trial. For that reason I concur with the result reached by the majority.