Toppins v. Schuermann

983 S.W.2d 582, 1998 Mo. App. LEXIS 2262, 1998 WL 894940
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 22, 1998
DocketNo. 73750
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 983 S.W.2d 582 (Toppins v. Schuermann) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Toppins v. Schuermann, 983 S.W.2d 582, 1998 Mo. App. LEXIS 2262, 1998 WL 894940 (Mo. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

LAWRENCE E. MOONEY, Judge.

John Toppins (“Plaintiff’) appeals from the Judgment and Order of the trial court granting the Joint Motion of Defendants for a New Trial (“Motion for New Trial”). We reverse.

Plaintiff sued Jeffrey Schuermann and Schuermann’s employer, Industrial and Petroleum Environmental Services, Inc., (“Defendants”) for personal injuries sustained in an automobile accident. The case was tried before a jury, which returned a verdict of $150,000.00 on August 21,1997. On September 9, 1997, Defendants filed a Motion for New Trial alleging the following trial errors, among others:

1. The amount of the verdict in favor of the Plaintiff and against the Defendants is excessive.
2. The amount of the verdict in favor of the Plaintiff and against the Defendants is so excessive as to affirmatively demonstrate bias and prejudice against the Defendants.
3. The Court erred in overruling Defendants’ objections to the reference to the Defendants and/or defense counsel as the “corporate” Defendants and/or the “corporate” Defendants’ attorney and/or said references constituted plain error, the sole purpose thereof being to inflame the jury and engender bias and prejudice against the Defendants...
5. One or more venire persons (sic), or members of their immediate family, may have incorrectly, inadvertently and/or deliberately failed to reveal during voir dire examination, in response to appropriate questions to that effect, that they or members of the immediate family had been, in the past, plaintiffs in a personal injury lawsuit and/or had a claim for personal injury, thereby misleading defense counsel and denying the Defendants a full, fair and impartial jury.

The trial court entered judgment on the jury verdict on September 12, 1997. On December 1, 1997, the trial court granted Defendants’ Motion for New Trial on the following grounds:

1. The verdict is against the weight of the evidence, given that the verdict of $150,-000.00 is excessive in light of the evidence showing approximately $8,000.00 in special damages and little need for future medical treatment.
2. Intentional references by plaintiffs counsel to the “corporate defendant” and “corporate defense counsel” may have inflamed the jury and caused bias and prejudice against the defendants.
3. During voir dire, venireperson Shirley Lewis, who served as a juror, failed to disclose relevant, material information concerning a pending claim in response to clear questions. Her nondisclosure was intentional and therefore bias and prejudice are presumed.
4. During voir dire, venireperson Patricia Guerin, who served as a juror, failed to disclose relevant, material information concerning her husband’s prior personal injury claims in response to clear questions. Her nondisclosure was intentional and therefore bias and prejudice are presumed.

Plaintiff timely filed this appeal, asking us to reverse the judgment of the trial court granting the motion for new trial and to reinstate the jury’s verdict.

ANALYSIS

In ruling upon a motion for new trial, the trial court is vested with broad discretion. Hyde v. Butsch, 861 S.W.2d 819, 820 (Mo.App. E.D.1993). Abuse of discretion occurs:

[586]*586“...when a trial court’s ruling is clearly against the logic of the circumstances then before the court and is so arbitrary and unreasonable as to shock the sense of justice and indicate a lack a careful consideration; if reasonable men can differ about the propriety of the action taken by the trial court, then it cannot be said that the trial court abused its discretion.”

Wingate v. Lester E. Cox Medical Center, 853 S.W.2d 912, 917 (Mo. banc 1993). Appellant bears the burden of proving that the trial court abused its discretion in granting the motion for the stated reasons. Hyde, 861 S.W.2d at 821. Reviewing courts are more liberal in upholding the trial court’s grant of a motion for new trial than its denial. Id. at 820. However, when reviewing the grant of a new trial following a verdict in favor of plaintiff, we view the evidence and all inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to plaintiff. Luyties Pharmacol Co. v. Frederic Co., Inc., 716 S.W.2d 831, 833 (Mo.App. E.D.1986). With these principles in mind, we turn to the specific allegations of error in this case.

Against the Weight of the Evidence

In his first point of error, Plaintiff contends that the trial court erred in granting a new trial on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence, because Defendants failed to raise this claim in their Motion for New Trial, and the new trial was granted more than 30 days after the court entered judgment on the jury verdict.

The trial court has thirty days after the entry of judgment in which to grant a new trial on its own initiative. Rule 75.01. The court acts on its own initiative when it grants a new trial on any ground not contained in the motion for new trial. Stretch v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 645 S.W.2d 729, 731 (Mo.App. E.D.1983); Sondergard v. Kansas City Power & Light Co., 826 S.W.2d 20, 22 (Mo.App. W.D.1992). After the expiration of that thirty-day period, the trial court is limited to granting the relief sought by one of the parties based on the grounds properly preserved and set forth in that party’s motion for new trial. Id.

In this case, the trial court entered judgment on the jury verdict on September 12, 1997. However, the order granting the Defendant’s Motion for New Trial was not entered until December 1, 1997, outside the thirty-day period during which the court had jurisdiction to order a new trial sua sponte. As such, the court was limited to granting a new trial on the grounds raised in Defendants’ Motion for New Trial.

Again, the trial court granted a new trial in part on the ground that the verdict was “against the weight of the evidence... given that [it was] excessive.” We note that the trial court has broad discretion to grant a new trial on the ground that the verdict is against the weight of the evidence under Rule 78.02. If the trial court properly grants a new trial on such grounds, we will not interfere. Brown v. Lanrich, 950 S.W.2d 235, 236 (Mo.App. E.D.1997).

Plaintiff asserts that because the thirty-day period had expired at the time of entry of the judgment granting the Motion for New Trial, and because “against the weight of the evidence” was not raised in Defendants’ Motion for New Trial, the trial court was without jurisdiction to grant a new trial on such ground. We feel that Plaintiff has oversimplified the issue.

A claim that the verdict is against the weight of the evidence within the meaning of Rule 78.02 is a much broader claim than one of mere excessiveness of the verdict.

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Bluebook (online)
983 S.W.2d 582, 1998 Mo. App. LEXIS 2262, 1998 WL 894940, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/toppins-v-schuermann-moctapp-1998.