Court Opinion

ID: 9580067
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:01:33.682737+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:00.561097
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
dissenting in part:
Justice Huntley’s opinion attempts to place an unwarranted and unnecessary gloss on the standard contained in I.R.C.P. 59(a)(5) for awarding new trials based on excessive or inadequate damages. In so doing, the opinion disregards the clear language of Rule 59(a)(5) and our decision in Dinneen v. Finch, 100 Idaho 620, 603 P.2d 575 (1979), recently reaffirmed in Quick v. Crane, Ill Idaho 759, 727 P.2d 1187 (1986). The result is a less than clear analysis of the standards to be applied by trial courts in evaluating motions for new trial under I.R.C.P. 59(a)(5). As written, the Court’s opinion will only confuse bench and bar alike.
I believe the trial court did not err in granting the remittitur or, in the alternative, a new trial. Accordingly, the judgment and orders of the district court should be affirmed.
*626I
The Court’s opinion purports to rely on the case of Quick v. Crane, supra, to support its decision in the present case. It assumes that our opinion in Quick has altered the Dinneen standard, changing it from an “appearance of passion or prejudice” test to a “shocks the conscience” test. However, there is nothing in the Quick opinion which supports that assumption. Quick did nothing more than reaffirm our holding in Dinneen v. Finch, supra, stating that “in ruling upon a motion for a new trial [under Rule 59(a)(5)] premised upon inadequate or excessive damages, the rule a trial court must follow is set forth in Dinneen v. Finch,____” 111 Idaho at 768, 727 P.2d at 1196. Our opinion in Quick then quotes, directly from Dinneen, the following language:
“Where a motion for a new trial is premised on inadequate or excessive damages, the trial court must weigh the evidence and then compare the jury’s award to what he would have given had there been no jury. If the disparity is so great that it appears to the trial court that the award was given under the influence of passion or prejudice, the verdict ought not stand. It need not be proven that there was in fact passion or prejudice nor is it necessary to point to such in the record. The appearance of such is sufficient. A trial court is not restricted to ruling a verdict inadequate or excessive ‘as a matter of law.’ (Citation omitted.) Additionally, the rule that a verdict will not be set aside when supported by substantial but conflicting evidence has no application to a trial court ruling upon a motion for a new trial. (Citations omitted.)” 100 Idaho at 625-626, 603 P.2d at 580-81 (emphasis in original).
The Quick opinion further reaffirms the holding in Dinneen that whether the disparity between the judge’s determination of damages and the jury’s determination of damages is sufficient to merit a new trial is a decision left entirely to the discretion of the trial court.
“How substantial this difference must be is impossible to formulate with any degree of accuracy. It will necessarily vary with the factual context of each case and the trial judge’s sense of fairness and justice. Frequent characterizations have included the idea that the disparity must ‘shock the conscience’ of the trial judge or lead him to conclude that it would be ‘unconscionable’ to let the damage award stand as the jury set it. (Citations omitted.) These characterizations, of course, do little more than restate the trial judge’s discretionary perspective but are, nonetheless, frequently employed in other areas of the law and, therefore, may be useful to the trial judge.” Quick v. Crane, supra 111 Idaho at 769-70,727 P.2d at 1197-98, (emphasis added).
As the language in the above statement indicates, the Quick opinion in no way changes or modifies the Dinneen standard. As we held in Dinneen, and reaffirmed in Quick, once such discretion is exercised our review on appeal is limited merely to determining whether or not that discretion has been abused.
Herein lies the error in the Court’s opinion in the present case. Although purporting to abide by the Dinneen standard of review on appeal, i.e., abuse of discretion, the opinion fails to indicate in what manner the trial judge in the present case has abused his discretion in ruling on a motion for new trial under I.R.C.P. 59(a)(5). The Court never once finds that the trial judge abused his discretion. Absent such a finding, I fail to see on what basis this Court may reverse the trial judge’s considered decision and remand for further proceedings. The decision to reverse and remand appears to be based entirely upon the conclusion that this Court is unable to determine whether the trial court properly applied the Dinneen standard to the facts of this case. This conclusion is expressed in the following statement: “We cannot ascertain whether the trial court was either shocked by the jury’s award or whether it found that award unconscionable.” Ante at 616, 733 P.2d at 1241. However, as Dinneen explains, the express language of I.R.C.P. 59(a)(5) adopts the “passion or *627prejudice” standard, not a “shock the conscience” or “unconscionable” test for determining whether the disparity between the award determined by the trial judge and jury is so great as to merit the granting of the motion for new trial under 59(a)(5). Neither Dinneen nor Quick nor the express language of I.R.C.P. 59(a)(5) require that a trial judge use such a “shock the conscience” test in ruling upon such motions. I find it difficult to understand how in the present case there can be any finding that the trial judge abused his discretion in ruling on a motion for new trial under 59(a)(5) simply because he did not use the magical phrase “shock the conscience.”1
The court’s opinion assumes that the trial court abused its discretion, holding that it is unable to ascertain whether “the trial court was shocked by the jury’s award or whether it found that amount unconscionable.” That statement is curious, given the fact that the trial court did make such a finding of unconscionability. In the present case the trial court specifically found that he could not “in good conscience, come within $400,000 of the jury’s verdict.” It is abundantly clear that the trial court implicitly found the appearance of passion or prejudice based on a difference between damage amounts awarded by himself and the jury which he classified as “a substantial difference.” The trial judge specifically stated in open court that he thought that the 30% difference between his award of $950,000 and the jury’s award of $1.35 million “would certainly be considered sufficient” for purposes of supporting a finding of the appearance of passion or prejudice as required by the express language of I.R.C.P. 59(a)(5) and this Court’s decision in Dinneen.
Given the Dinneen standard and this Court’s explicit holding in Quick v. Crane, supra, that “[h]ow substantial this difference [between judge and jury assessment of damages] must be is impossible to formulate with any degree of accuracy,” and that “it will necessarily vary with the factual context of each case and the trial judge’s sense of fairness and justice,” Quick at 769, 727 P.2d at 1197. I fail to see how this Court can hold that the trial judge has failed to carry out his duty as required by Dinneen in ruling on a motion for new trial under 59(a)(5). He has not abused his discretion, and any implicit finding to the contrary by the Court today is without foundation in the law or the record in the present case.
The Court’s opinion is critical of Dinneen based upon a most unwarranted assumption, reflected in the Court’s statement, ante at 614, 733 P.2d at 1239, that “the most confusing aspect of Dinneen is its intimation that, after the trial court has weighed the evidence and reached its determination, its determination is then of equal parity with that of the jury.” (Emphasis added.) There is no such “intimation” in Justice Bistline’s opinion in Dinneen. That opinion clearly provided that only if the difference between the court’s evaluation of damages and the jury’s evaluation of damages was so great as to suggest the influence of passion or prejudice on the part of the jury, was the trial court authorized to grant the motion for new trial, or a remittitur of damages.
In the several cases which have followed Dinneen in the last year which are discussed in more detail hereinafter, including Black v. Reynolds, 109 Idaho 277, 707 P.2d 388 (1985), which was authored by the author of today’s opinion, there was no suggestion that Dinneen “intimated” that the determination of the trial judge was “of equal parity with that of the jury.” The Court today finds this assumed “intimation” in Dinneen, and then concludes that “the trial court (Judge Rowett) merely substituted its award amount, reached by way of a different method of calculation, for that of the jury.” There is absolutely nothing in the record to support that statement. *628On the contrary, Judge Rowett stated that the disparity between what the jury awarded, and what he would have awarded, was such “a substantial difference” that he could not “in good conscience come within $400,000.00 of the jury’s verdict.” There is absolutely no justification for the Court’s assumption that Judge Rowett merely substituted his opinion for that of the jury.
We never presume error on appeal. Carpenter v. Double R Cattle Co., Inc., 108 Idaho 602, 701 P.2d 222 (1985); Woods v. Crouse, 101 Idaho 764, 620 P.2d 798 (1980). The appellant always bears the burden of proving that the trial court committed error. Dawson v. Mead, 98 Idaho 1, 557 P.2d 595 (1976) (“It is fundamental that error will not be presumed, but must be shown affirmatively by the appellant on the record.”). This is a particularly heavy burden in those cases where the issue to be reviewed on appeal is whether the trial court abused its discretion, which is the standard involved in reviewing the trial judge’s action on a motion for new trial under Rule 59(a)(5). Dinneen v. Finch, supra; Black v. Reynolds, supra. The Court’s opinion today does just the contrary. It “intimates” a misinterpretation of Dinneen, ante at 619, 738 P.2d at 1244, and then assumes an erroneous evaluation by the trial court, ante at 616, 733 P.2d at 1241.
The error in today’s opinion becomes more obvious when it is contrasted with the facts, analysis, and result reached in Black v. Reynolds, 109 Idaho 277, 707 P.2d 388 (1985), and Vannoy v. Uniroyal, 111 Idaho 536, 726 P.2d 648 (1986), two similar cases decided in the last year. In Black v. Reynolds, supra, the trial court, in ruling on a Rule 59(a)(5) motion for new trial or remittitur for excessive damages, stated that he had “the opportunity to weigh the demean- or, credibility and testimony of the witnesses.” However, the trial court made no express determination of what he would have awarded, or whether there was any appearance of passion or prejudice, or whether the jury’s award “shocked the conscience.” Thus, in Black v. Reynolds, supra, the trial court failed to comply with any of the directives set forth in the present opinion, i.e., he did not employ the Dinneen standard of appearance of passion or prejudice (making his own determination of damage award and comparing it with the jury’s) nor did he utilize the “shock the conscience” standard which the Court’s opinion in the present case appears to hold is required in ruling on a motion for new trial under 59(a)(5). Nevertheless, Justice Huntley, writing for this Court in affirming the trial court in Black, stated that “this Court cannot conclude, as a matter of law, that the trial court abused its discretion in denying the motion for a new trial on the ground the verdict was excessive.” Black v. Reynolds, 109 Idaho at 277, 707 P.2d at 388. A special concurring opinion stated that we could not assume that the trial court had “eschewed” his Dinneen duty, and that by the trial court merely stating that it had “the opportunity to weigh the demeanor, credibility and testimony of witnesses,” that “most will see the statement as tantamount to saying that the evidence was weighed just as it would have been in a trial to the court, and no such great disparity was found to exist as to suggest the influence of jury passion or prejudice.” Black v. Reynolds, 109 Idaho at 286, 707 P.2d at 397 (Bistline, J., concurring specially). In the present case, Judge Rowett’s Dinneen analysis far exceeded that of the district court in Black. Not only did Judge Rowett “weigh the demean- or, credibility and testimony of witnesses,” as the court did in Black, but he also specifically found that he could not “in good conscience, come within $400,000 of the jury’s verdict.” Accordingly, he granted the remittitur or, in the alternative, a motion for new trial. If the statement of the trial judge in Black v. Reynolds, supra, that he had “weighted] the demeanor, credibility and testimony of witnesses” was “tantamount to saying that the evidence was weighed just as it would have been in a trial to the court, and no so great disparity was found to exist as to suggest the influence of jury passion or prejudice,” Black v. Reynolds, supra at 286, 707 P.2d *629at 388 (Bistline, J., concurring specially), then Judge Rowett’s express weighing of the evidence and his stated conclusion that he could not “in good conscience, come within $400,000 of the jury’s verdict,” is “tantamount to saying that the evidence was weighed just as it would have been in a trial to the court, and [such a] great disparity was found to exist as to suggest the influence of jury passion or prejudice.” Black v. Reynolds, supra at 286, 707 P.2d at 388.
In Vannoy this Court affirmed the trial court’s granting of Rule 59(a)(5) motion for a new trial or, in the alternative, remittitur of a portion of the damages. The Vannoy trial court, in making his Dinneen analysis, stated:
“The Court finds that the actual evidence introduced on loss of consortium was very sketchy and would not justify an award of damages in the amount of $74,-895.81. If I were sitting on the case, I would have awarded damages of $10,-000.00. I feel that the jury’s decision also deserves some weight. Accordingly, I will grant defendant’s Motion for a New Trial unless plaintiffs agree to reduce the damages awarded to Nadine Vannoy for loss of consortium to $20,-000.00.”
The Vannoy case is similar to Black v. Reynolds, supra, even though the trial court in Vannoy went further and indicated how much he would have awarded in damages had he been the finder of fact, something which the court in Black did not do. However, the trial judge in Vannoy did not go as far as Judge Rowett, the trial judge in this case, who additionally stated that he could not “in good conscience, come within $400,000.00 of the jury’s verdict.” Apparently the trial judge in Vannoy was saved from error by not repeating Judge Rowett’s statement that he could not “in good conscience ” come within $400,000.00 of the jury’s verdict. That makes it all the more difficult to understand how the Court today can justify reversing Judge Rowett’s handling of the motion for new trial and remanding to determine whether he was “either shocked by the jury’s award or whether it found that award unconscionable.”
When a trial court’s ruling on a motion for new trial under 59(a)(5) is appealed to this Court, our review is limited to a determination of whether or not the trial judge has abused his discretion in applying the Dinneen standard to the motion for new trial. In the present case, the trial court conscientiously applied the Dinneen standard. It is difficult to comprehend how the Court in the present case, given the trial judge’s detailed application .of Dinneen to the facts of this case, can hold that he has abused his discretion requiring reversal and remand for further consideration.
The result reached by the Court in the present case, contrasted with the result reached in Black v. Reynolds, supra, and Quick v. Crane, supra, sends conflicting signals to bench and bar alike regarding the rule governing motions for new trial under 59(a)(5). Analyzing these four cases together—Black, Vannoy, Quick, and Sanchez—we have arrived at the incongruous result that if a trial judge grants or denies a 59(a)(5) motion without giving any reasons for doing so, he will be reversed. Quick v. Crane, supra. However, if he becomes too detailed in his analysis he likewise will be reversed. Sanchez v. Galey. But if he gives only a little bit of reasoning, without becoming either too detailed or too brief, this Court will not assume that the trial court has “eschewed” his Dinneen duty, and we will affirm. Black v. Reynolds, supra; Vannoy v. Uniroyal, supra. The bar and the trial courts will surely have a difficult time understanding our decision today in this case.
II
I also dissent from Part VIII of the Court’s opinion regarding the admissibility of appellant’s alienage status. Citing this Court’s case in Patino v. Grigg & Anderson Farms, 97 Idaho 251, 542 P.2d 1170 (1975), the majority holds that it was not reversible error for the trial court to preclude defendants from making any *630statements before the jury regarding Sanchez’s alienage status. However, the Patino case does not so hold; if anything, it stands for just the opposite. In Patino the district court had admitted evidence regarding the plaintiff’s Mexican alienage status, and his illegal presence in the United States, and instructed the jury on the probability of the plaintiff being able to lawfully immigrate to the United States.2 There was no assignment of error on appeal in Patino regarding the disclosure of the plaintiff’s alienage status to the jury. On the contrary, the correctness of the trial court’s admission of that evidence was assumed, and the only error raised was concerning an error in Instruction No. 29 in which the trial court stated that the limitation on Western Hemisphere immigration, including Mexico, into the United States was five hundred thousand when, in fact, it was only one hundred and twenty thousand. The Court in Patino stated that the trial court’s instruction “incorrectly stated the number of immigrants allowed into this country annually from Western Hemisphere countries,” but found that “this error was not prejudicial.” The only relevant statement of law contained in the Patino case insofar as the present case is concerned is the following language. “It is well settled that damages for loss of earnings or profits must be shown with reasonable certainty and the compensatory awards based upon speculation or conjecture will not be allowed. Rindlisbaker v. Wilson, 95 Idaho 752, 519 P.2d 421 (1974).” Patino v. Grigg & Anderson Farms, 97 Idaho at 254, 542 P.2d at 1173.
While alienage status is of doubtful relevance insofar as liability is concerned, it clearly is relevant insofar as damages are concerned — in particular, future earning capacity. To permit a plaintiff, as was done in the present case, to introduce evidence regarding future earning capacity based entirely upon wages that a non-alien earns in the United States is precisely contrary to the rule of law set forth in Rindlisbaker. That is, awards . of damages must not be based on speculation or conjecture. Given the fact in the present case that Sanchez was not a United States citizen,3 it borders on mere speculation to assert that his future earning capacity would be equivalent to that of similarly employed United States citizens. Respondent should have been permitted to cross examine plaintiff’s expert regarding his testimony of Sanchez’s future earning capacity based upon the fact that Sanchez is an illegal alien. The Patino decision provides no basis for precluding defendants from disclosing Sanchez’s alienage status to the jury insofar as the damage issue is concerned. At a minimum, the trial court erred in not permitting counsel the opportunity to examine appellant regarding his intent to remain in this country regardless of any threat of deportation.
This issue alone is sufficient to require reversal and has been given short shrift by the Court’s opinion in the present case. The effect of this error, however, was largely mitigated by the trial court’s ordering of a new trial conditioned upon refusal of a remittitur by plaintiff of the damages from $1.35 million to $950,000. The trial court was fully informed regarding Sanchez’s alien status, and a significant portion of the reduction of the jury’s award of damage by the trial court in making his determination of damages was attributed to future earning capacity. If the Court *631today were affirming the trial court’s order of remittitur or, in the alternative granting a new trial, the failure of the trial court to permit evidence of Sanchez’s alienage status would constitute harmless error. If on remand the trial court determines to grant a new trial, then evidence of the plaintiff's alienage status should be admitted in the district court as it was in Patino v. Grigg & Anderson Farms, supra.
SHEPARD, J., concurs.

. In two cases decided in just the last year, Black v. Reynolds, 109 Idaho 277, 707 P.2d 388 (1985), and Vannoy v. Uniroyal, 111 Idaho 536, 726 P.2d 648 (1986), we affirmed the trial court’s Dinneen analysis which neither applied nor mentioned the “shock the conscience" or "unconscionable” test.

. Instruction No. 29 given by the court reads as follows:
"You are instructed that the Court takes judicial notice that there is no numerical limitation on the number of aliens who may lawfully enter the United States from Mexico for permanent residence, but that there is a numerical limitation of five hundred thousand aliens per year for immigrants to the United States from Western Hemisphere countries, which includes Mexico.
“You are further instructed that you may take these facts into account in determining the economic loss, if any, suffered by the Plaintiff if you find these facts applicable.”

. Sanchez’s counsel candidly admitted to the trial court that Mr. Sanchez was an undocumented alien subject to deportation in the following statement: “Lorenzo Sanchez’s immigration status may be a basis ... had he been apprehended ... for his deportation.”