 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Oregon Corp. v. Young12/10/1998
inder of the important policy reasons that support the requirement of a timely objection to a defect in a jury verdict. Both parties faced some degree of risk in deciding whether to object to the jury's verdict. Each party potentially could have objected and argued that the verdict was defective due to the absence of an award of actual damages. Such an objection would have permitted the court to allow the jury to correct the verdict or to deliberate further, as contemplated by ORCP 59 G(4). However, the outcome of such further proceedings would have been unpredictable. On the one hand, as defendants contend, the jury might have added an award of actual damages to its fraud verdict, thereby supporting the existing punitive damages award. On the other hand, the jury might have stricken the punitive damages award because it was not willing to award actual damages to plaintiff on the fraud claim. The jury also might have taken other corrective action to eliminate the defect.
By choosing not to object, defendants impeded the proper functioning of the procedure, described in ORCP 59 G(4) and discussed in our cases, for obtaining a timely correction by the jury of a defective verdict. That choice would lead to the needless retrial of cases, with the attendant burdens to litigants and the Justice system of greater delay and expense. See Fischer, 201 Or at 454:
"Objections which urge irregularities and lack of proper form will be treated as waived unless they were voiced before the jury was discharged. * * * When reconciled in the manner just indicated, effect is given to ยง 5-319 [now ORCP 59 G(4)] and a simple rule of procedure is had which can be easily employed. The rule minimizes retrials. Any rule which obviates needless retrials renders the administration of Justice more prompt and less expensive. The rule which we have distilled from our previous decisions does not reward with a new trial a party who sits mute when he should have spoken."
We hold that defendants waived their objection to the defect in the jury's verdict by failing to object when the jury was present. Defendants cannot remain silent, permit the trial court to discharge the jury and enter a judgment for the amounts awarded by the jury, and then, at a later date, seek a new trial because the verdict contains a defect. Because defendants waived their objection to the verdict, they are not permitted to rely later on the same objection in seeking a new trial. The trial court erred in granting a new trial on the basis of a claim of error that defendant had waived. See Beglau v. Albertus, 272 Or 170, 180, 536 P2d 1251 (1975) (trial court may order a new trial only for prejudicial error).
The decision of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. The case is remanded to the circuit court with instructions to enter judgment on plaintiff's fraud claim consistent with the jury verdict.
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Oregon Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|