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Redmond v. Socha10/6/2005
g the proceedings," or a trial that "ends inconclusively because the jury cannot agree on a verdict." Black's Law Dictionary 1023 (8th ed. 2004). If a jury is deadlocked, a mistrial must be declared. When the jury returns a unanimous verdict, a motion for mistrial is untimely and inappropriate.
However, even when a jury has rendered a unanimous verdict, making a motion for mistrial improper, a party may still seek a new trial on the basis of legally inconsistent verdicts or on the basis that the verdicts are against the manifest weight of the evidence. Such motions must necessarily be made after the jury has returned its verdict. See Joe & Dan International Corp. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 178 Ill. App. 3d 741, 745-46 (1988) (motion for mistrial based on inconsistent verdicts is not timely because a motion for mistrial must be made before a verdict is entered; however, party's motion for directed verdict and motion for new trial adequately preserved the issue of inconsistent verdicts for appeal). Thus, the appellate court was not entirely accurate when it stated that " f the jury was unable to determine which of the parties was negligent, a mistrial should have been declared and a new trial ordered." 352 Ill. App. 3d at 1055.
We conclude that Redmond did not forfeit his ability to seek a new trial on either of these grounds by submitting the jury instruction. The errors he asserts did not arise until the jury rendered its verdicts. These issues were preserved for appeal by his filing of a timely posttrial motion and were, therefore, properly considered by the trial court and the appellate court.
This court last considered the effect of legally inconsistent verdicts in the context of civil litigation in Wottowa Insurance Agency, Inc. v. Bock, 104 Ill. 2d 311 (1984), in which the plaintiff insurance agency sued two individuals who were attorneys and officers of two businesses that owed it over $27,000. The agency proceeded under two alternative theories of liability. First, Wottowa claimed that defendants should be required to pay the debts of the corporations because they had personally guaranteed payment. Second, Wottowa alleged that the individuals had fraudulently induced the agency to grant extensions of credit to the businesses. Wottowa, 104 Ill. 2d at 312-13. The jury found that the guarantee agreement was executed by the defendants in their capacity as corporate officers and, thus, created a corporate obligation rather than a personal obligation. As for the fraud count, the jury found that the defendants, as individuals, had committed fraud. Wottowa, 104 Ill. 2d at 316.
Citing earlier decisions of the appellate court, this court stated that " n the same action, where verdicts are returned which are legally inconsistent with each other, the verdicts should be set aside and a new trial granted." Wottowa, 104 Ill. 2d at 316. Because the jury had determined that the corporations were liable for the debt owed to Wottowa, it was legally inconsistent for the jury to also find that the individual defendants (as opposed to the corporation) were liable for fraud. This court found the two verdicts to be "irreconcilably inconsistent" (Wottowa, 104 Ill. 2d at 316) and ordered a new trial.
In Wottowa, this court did not expressly state that it was engaging in de novo review. However, it is implicit in our analysis in Wottowa that legal inconsistency is a question of law. We relied on the law of agency to determine that the individual defendants could not be acting both as individuals and as officers of the debtor corporations when they signed the guarantee agreement. Wottowa, 104 Ill. 2d at 316, citing Knightsbridge Realty Partners, Ltd-75 v.
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