Court Opinion

ID: 9775407
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:57:23.028938+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:25.813191
License: Public Domain

David Newbern, Justice, concurring. Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure 59(f) provides: “A motion for a new trial shall not be necessary to preserve for appeal an error which could be the basis for granting a new trial.” That provision was added to the rule in 1984 to restore to Arkansas practice the provision previously found in superseded Ark. Stat. Ann. § 27-2127.5 (Repl. 1962). Prior to 1984 it was not to be found in the Rules, which became effective in 1979. In Hall v. Grimmett, 318 Ark. 309, 885 S.W.2d 297 (1994), the appellants argued that a judgment which resulted in no damages to them as plaintiffs in an automobile negligence case should be overturned because the verdict of the jury was against the preponderance of the evidence. Rule 59(a)(6) provides that a new trial may be granted because “the verdict or decision is clearly contrary to the preponderance of the evidence.” No motion for a new trial had been made. We wrote: Mr. and Mrs. Hall’s sole point on appeal is that the jury verdict was against the “great weight and preponderance of the evidence.” The Halls did not move for a new trial and this is not an appeal from the denial of a motion for a new trial. See ARCP Rule 59(a)(6). It is not necessary to move for a new trial to preserve for appeal any error which could be the basis for granting a new trial. ARCP Rule 59(f). Rule 59 specifically states a motion for new trial may be granted for eight reasons, one of which is where the verdict is clearly contrary to the preponderance of the evidence. [Emphasis supplied.] The majority opinion suggests that Rule 59(f) only obviates the need to move for a new trial to preserve an error which could be the basis of one of the eight grounds and that an error constituting one of the eight grounds must have been preserved by objection in some other context in order to be considered on appeal. If that is the case, Rule 59(f) has no utility or meaning. We posed no such requirement in the Hall case or in cases decided under the predecessor statute. In Southern National Ins. Co. v. Williams, 224 Ark. 938, 277 S.W.2d 487 (1955), it was argued that the appellant could not question excessiveness of damages on appeal absent having challenged the award in the Trial Court. We wrote: As a preliminary matter it is contended that the appellant is not entitled to question the amount of the verdict, for the reason that the liberality of the award was not challenged in the trial court. This argument would formerly have been meritorious. By the Civil Code excessiveness of the damages was a ground for a new trial. Ark. Stats., § 27-1901, and the error was waived if not assigned in the motion for a new trial. St. L., I.M. & S. R’y v. Branch, 45 Ark. 524. But Act 555 of 1953 provides that no motion for a new trial and no assignment of errors shall be necessary. Ark. Stats., § 27-2127.5. Thus the old rule has apparently been abrogated. Similar language and a similar holding occurred in Lake v. Lake, 262 Ark. 852, 562 S.W.2d 68 (1978). Despite the fairly longstanding history of this seeming exception to the “plain error rule” in this State, there is no good reason not to require that the trial court be apprised by motion of a ground for a new trial as a prerequisite to an appeal seeking a new trial. While I cannot interpret Rule 59(f) as strictly as the majority opinion does, I would interpret it in such a way as to preclude it from becoming a mask for objections which could have been, but were not, made at the trial. In this case, the Stackses argue entitlement to a new trial due to an excessive award of damages. While that seems to fit the ground stated in Rule 59(a)(4) or (5), the supporting argument is that irrelevant evidence was admitted to prove damages which should not have been recoverable as a matter of law. We should not review that evidentiary issue under the guise of Rule 59(a)(4) or (5). Subsection (f) should be excised from Rule 59. Until that occurs we, and thereafter the trial courts, should limit the granting of relief under Rule 59 to instances in which the new trial motion or argument on appeal is not a cover for alleged errors which should have been, but were not, called to the trial court’s attention in other ways. To that extent I concur with the majority opinion, and I fully concur in the result it reaches.