Court Opinion

ID: 9442805
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:00:35.252891+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:14.685232
License: Public Domain

HUTCHESON, Chief Judge
(concurring).
While I concur fully in the order overruling the motion for rehearing, in view of the statement in appellant’s motion that the failure of the Court to state its views on the issue of the claimed excessiveness of the verdict has left them in doubt as to their proper course, I have concluded to briefly state my own views.
1. The action of the district judge in refusing to relieve against the verdict as excessive is, unreviewable by this court if the verdict is excessive only in fact, reviewable if it is excessive in law.
2 Whether, in the opinion of the district judge, a verdict is excessive as matter of fact, that is, though not contrary to right reason and, therefore not excessive as matter of law, it is larger in amount than the judge thinks it justly ought to be, or is excessive as matter of law, that is, is so monstrous1 or inordinate2 in amount as to find no support in right reason,3 he has the same power, the same duty, in the one case as in the other to relieve against the excessiveness by granting a new trial or requiring a remittitur in lieu.
3. The power and duty, on the other hand, of the Court of Appeals to relieve against excessiveness in verdicts does not extend to cases where the verdict is excessive merely as matter of fact. Limited as it is by the Seventh Amendment, its power and duty extend only to cases in which the verdict is excessive as matter of law, that is> is so gross or inordinate in amount as to be contrary to right reason.
In such cases the Court of Appeals has the power, and it is its duty, to relieve against excessiveness in law either by reversing the judgment for the error in law of the trial judge in abusing his discretion by not relieving against it, or by requiring a remittitur in lieu of reversal.
In this case I was, and am, of the clear opinion that the verdict is not gross, monstrous, or inodinate, and, therefore, contrary to right reason, and if it is excessive it is not so as matter of law but only as matter of fact. This being so, I was, and am, of the opinion that this court is without power, it has no duty or function, to inquire into *752the amount of its excessiveness as matter of fact, none to reverse for, or otherwise relieve against, the excessiveness, if any, as matter of fact, in the verdict.
In agreeing, therefore, to affirm the judgment against the attack upon it of the excessiveness of the verdict, I did so without at all intending either to approve or disapprove the amount of the verdict or to consider or determine whether it was or was not excessive as matter of fact or whether it should or should not have been relieved against by the district judge in the exercise of his undoubted power and his equally undoubted duty4 to relieve against such excessiveness, if, in his judgment, it was excessive in fact, that is, was larger in amount than he thought it justly ought to be.

. Virginia Railway Co. v. Armentrout, 4 Cir., 166 F.2d 400, 4 A.L.R.2d 1064; Affolder v. N.Y., 339 U.S. 96, 70 S.Ct. 509, 94 L.Ed. 683; Barry v. Edmunds, 116 U.S. 550, 6 S.Ct. 501, 29 L.Ed. 729; So. Pac. v. Guthrie, 9 Cir., 180 F.2d 295; on rehearing, 9 Cir., 186 F.2d 926; But see, contra, St. Louis, S. W. Ry. Co. v. Ferguson, 8 Cir., 182 F.2d 949.

. Crowell-Collier v. Caldwell, 5 Cir., 170 F.2d 941.

. Law and Fact in Insurance Oases, Texas Law Review, Dec., 1944, at pp. 4, 5, and 6; Reid v. Maryland Cas. Co., 5 Cir., 63 F.2d 10; Quanah A. & P. R. Co. v. Gray, 5 Cir., 63 F.2d 410; Howard v. Louisiana 6 R. Co., 5 Cir., 49 F.2d 571; Chamberlayne, “The Modern Law of Evidence,” Secs. 120(a), 122, 145, 148 and 149.

. Cobb v. Lepisto, 9 Cir., 6 F.2d 128; Virginia Ry. Co. v. Armentrout, 4 Cir., 166 F.2d 408, 4 A.L.R.2d 1064; Southern Pacific v. Guthrie, 9 Cir., 186 F.2d 926, at page 933 and note 11; Reid v. Maryland Gas. Co., 5 Cir., 63 F.2d 10, at p. 12.