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Laughlin v. Fillers9/22/2005
se counsel stated during closing argument that Defendant was "at the mercy of [Plaintiff] with respect to telling how and why this accident happened" because Defendant could remember nothing about the accident and there were no eyewitnesses. Plaintiff raised no objection to these statements when they were made.
The jury returned its verdict and a judgment was entered on September 7, 2004, in accordance with the verdict. Among other things, the judgment awarded Plaintiff $3,500 for damage to his wrecker, $70 for the loss of use of the wrecker, and $1,152.91 for his personal injury . Plaintiff filed a Motion for New Trial and/or To Alter and Amend Judgment, which the Trial Court denied by order entered December 3, 2004. In the December 3 order, the Trial Court specifically approved the verdict of the jury. Plaintiff appeals to this Court.
Discussion
Although not stated exactly as such, Plaintiff raises two issues on appeal: 1) whether the jury's award of property damages for the damages to Plaintiff's wrecker is insufficient and inadequate as a matter of law; and, 2) whether the Trial Court erred in refusing to grant a new trial based upon alleged improper and inflammatory statements made by defense counsel in the presence of the jury.
We first address whether the jury's award for the damages to Plaintiff's wrecker is insufficient and inadequate as a matter of law. "Findings of fact by a jury in civil actions shall be set aside only if there is no material evidence to support the verdict." Tenn. R. App. P. 13(d). As our Supreme Court has explained:
It is the time honored rule in this State that in reviewing a judgment based upon a jury verdict the appellate courts are not at liberty to weigh the evidence or to decide where the preponderance lies, but are limited to determining whether there is material evidence to support the verdict; and in determining whether there is material evidence to support the verdict, the appellate court is required to take the strongest legitimate view of all the evidence in favor of the verdict, to assume the truth of all that tends to support it, allowing all reasonable inferences to sustain the verdict, and to discard all to the contrary. Having thus examined the record, if there be any material evidence to support the verdict, it must be affirmed; if it were otherwise, the parties would be deprived of their constitutional right to trial by jury.
Crabtree Masonry Co., Inc. v. C & R Constr., Inc., 575 S.W.2d 4, 5 (Tenn. 1978).
Our Supreme Court also has instructed:
that the "amount fixed by the jury and concurred in by the trial judge will be accepted upon appeal unless there is something to show a violation of the discretion" of the trial judge. We have also said that a jury verdict that has the trial judge's approval is entitled to "great weight," ... and that the appellate court "rarely ever" disapproves damages set in this manner.* "After [the trial judge] has approved the verdict it is our duty not to disturb it unless it is evident that he failed to keep the jury within reasonable bounds."
Thrailkill v. Patterson, 879 S.W.2d 836, 840 (Tenn. 1994) (citations omitted).
Plaintiff argues that Mr. Byrd's testimony regarding the value of Plaintiff's wrecker was both unopposed and introduced without objection. Plaintiff argues, in part, that since Mr. Byrd opined that Plaintiff's wrecker was worth "twenty, or in there," and that the wrecker unit itself was worth $10,000, then the value of the truck portion was approximately $10,000. Given this and Mr. Byrd's admission that the wrecker unit could be unbolted from the chassis for approximately $1,500, Plai
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