Morrison v. Mineral Palace Ltd. Partnership

• Decision Date: 01 April 1998
• Docket Number: No. 20080,20080
• Citation: 1998 SD 33,576 N.W.2d 869
• Parties: Maggie MORRISON, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. MINERAL PALACE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP and Thomas R. Nelson and Melodee Nelson, general partners, Defendants and Appellants.
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

Page 869

576 N.W.2d 869

1998 SD 33

Maggie MORRISON, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. MINERAL PALACE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP and Thomas R. Nelson and Melodee Nelson, general partners, Defendants and Appellants.

No. 20080.

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

Argued Jan. 14, 1998.

Decided April 1, 1998.

John J. Delaney of Estes, Porter & Delaney, Rapid City, for plaintiff and appellee.

Paul S. Swedlund and J. Crisman Palmer of Gunderson, Palmer, Goodsell & Nelson, Rapid City, for defendants and appellants.

AMUNDSON, Justice.

¶1 Maggi Morrison (Morrison) brought a claim for negligence against Mineral Palace Limited Partnership and its general partners, Thomas R. Nelson and Melodee Nelson (collectively referred to as Mineral Palace). After the jury returned a verdict awarding Morrison her economic losses, but awarding no compensation for noneconomic damages, the trial court granted Morrison's motion for a new trial limited to the question of the extent of Morrison's contributory negligence and damages. Mineral Palace appeals the order granting a new trial and the trial court's order limiting the scope of the new trial. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

FACTS

¶2 On the evening of February 26, 1994, Morrison walked across a driveway area in front of the Mineral Palace in Deadwood, South Dakota. She slipped and fell on some ice that had formed on the driveway, breaking her ankle.

¶3 The fracture required surgery to place metal screws within the ankle and then a second surgery to remove them. As a result of the fracture, Morrison was unable to walk or work for an extended period of time and endured substantial pain. In addition, her surgeon testified that she has reached maximum medical improvement, but her ankle is permanently impaired.

¶4 Morrison sued Mineral Palace for her injuries and the case was tried before a jury. The jury returned a verdict for Morrison. By way of special interrogatories, Mineral Palace was found negligent and Morrison was found contributorily negligent, less than slight. In assessing damages, the jury awarded $15,620 in medical expenses and $10,530 in lost wages, for a total of $26,151. These were the exact amounts that Morrison had claimed for medical expenses and lost wages. Though the interrogatory form provided spaces for the jury to fill in amounts to compensate Morrison for her noneconomic damages (such as pain and suffering and permanent impairment), the jury awarded nothing to compensate Morrison for these claims.

¶5 Based upon the jury's decision not to award her compensation for noneconomic damages, Morrison filed a motion for new trial on the grounds of inadequacy of damages and insufficiency of the evidence. Mineral Palace opposed the motion, contending the jury's finding of contributory negligence properly accounted for the result on the issue of damages. The trial court denied the motion for new trial on the grounds of inadequacy of damages, but granted the motion for new trial on the basis of insufficiency of the evidence. The trial court also limited the scope of the new trial to the issue of damages and contributory negligence.

¶6 Mineral Palace appeals, advancing the following issues:

1 Whether the trial court erred in granting Morrison's motion for retrial.

2 Whether it was error for the trial court to limit the scope of the new trial only to the questions of the extent of plaintiff's contributory negligence and damages.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶7 "[A] motion for a new trial is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court; we will not overturn the court's ruling unless it appears affirmatively from the record there has been an abuse of discretion." Robbins v. Buntrock, 1996 SD 84, p 16, 550 N.W.2d 422, 427 (citing Fullmer v. State Farm Ins. Co., 498 N.W.2d 357, 361 (S.D.1993); Enchanted World Doll Museum v. Buskohl, 398 N.W.2d 149, 153 (S.D.1986); Simmons v. City of Sioux Falls, 374 N.W.2d 631, 632 (S.D.1985)). "Additionally, this court has consistently stated that more deference is given to the trial court's grant of a new trial than to its denial of one[.]" Tunender v. Minnaert, 1997 SD 62, p 9, 563 N.W.2d 849, 851 (citations omitted). This is because orders allowing new trials "are not conclusive or decisive of any rights or issues.... [T]hey merely 'open the way for a reinvestigation of the entire case upon its facts and merits.' " Jensen v. Miller, 80 S.D. 384, 389, 124 N.W.2d 394, 396 (1963) (citation omitted).

DECISION

¶8 1. Whether the trial court erred in granting Morrison's motion for retrial.

¶9 In reviewing the grant of the new trial, it becomes readily apparent that the trial court was entirely within its discretion to do so. Almost indistinguishable facts were presented in Gould v. Mans, 82 S.D. 574, 152 N.W.2d 92, (1967), where this Court affirmed the trial court's grant of a new trial. In Gould, the jury awarded plaintiff the exact amount of medical, hospital, physical therapy, and transportation expenses of $3,028.92 without awarding anything for pain and suffering and disability. Id. at 576, 152 N.W.2d at 93. The trial judge granted plaintiff's motion for a new trial on the grounds that the verdict was inadequate, among other things. ¹ Id. The trial court's decision was explained by this Court as follows:

[T]he trial court was following the apparent weight of authority which regards a verdict in a personal injury action for the amount of medical expenses to be inadequate and invalid without an additional award for pain and suffering.... The reasoning behind this rule is explained ... as follows: a jury cannot award recovery for medical expenses and without reason deny recovery for the very injuries necessitating the medical expenses. The grounds upon which the courts hold such a verdict inadequate and invalid vary. In some cases it is said to be inconsistent.... In others the great weight of evidence compels an award for pain and suffering and failure to include such an award in the verdict reflects a disregard by the jury of proper instructions given by the court.... A verdict of this nature is also said to be a compromise, ... the result of mistake, passion, prejudice, or partiality, ... or the evidence is insufficient to sustain the same[.]

Id. at 576-77, 152 N.W.2d at 93 (citations omitted); see also Todd R. Smyth, Annotation, Validity of Verdict Awarding Medical Expenses to Personal Injury Plaintiff, but Failing to Award Damages for Pain and Suffering, 55 A.L.R.4th 186 (1987) (noting that "[m]ost jurisdictions have taken the position that such a verdict cannot stand where the plaintiff's pain and suffering was proved, undisputed, or could be assumed to have resulted from the nature of the injuries involved"). We find nothing in the record that would distinguish the facts of this case from Gould. Therefore, we hold the trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting a new trial in this case.

ܒ Mineral Palace attempts to get past the fatal flaw in the jury verdict in this case through the contention that the jury's finding of contributory negligence, less than slight, explains the jury's award of only economic damages. Mineral Palace looks to Freeman v. Berg, 482 N.W.2d 32 (S.D.1992), for support for its position. In Freeman, the plaintiff had at least $129,000 in medical bills, but the jury only awarded a total of $100,000 for all damages. Id. at 33. This Court affirmed the trial court's decision to deny a new trial based upon inadequate damages "[b]ecause the jury may have reduced the damages to account for contributory negligence by Freeman, or may have concluded that the stipulated medical bills were not reasonable." Id. at 35. This Court noted that "[f]rom reviewing the verdict form, there is no way for this court to know how the jury arrived at the $100,000 figure. 'Mere assertions of what the jury may have concluded are insufficient' to show prejudice." Id. (citations omitted).

¶11 However, Freeman is distinguishable from this case because there were special interrogatories in this case that show how the jury came up with its award of damages. There is no need and no basis for speculation as to what the jury did. They failed to award anything for absolutely clear and inescapable damages for pain and suffering and disability after already deciding that Mineral Palace was liable for the medical bills and lost wages to the penny of what the plaintiff claimed. In contrast, in Freeman, the Court did not have the benefit of interrogatories to examine the jury's decision. The verdict for $100,000 could have contained all the different claims for damages, reduced by contributory negligence and unreasonable medical bills. Thus, Freeman was consistent with the notion that "if a verdict is susceptible to more than one construction, the construction which sustains the verdict must be applied." Id. (citing Bankwest, Inc. v. Valentine, 451 N.W.2d 732, 736 (S.D.1990); Fjerstad v. Sioux Valley Hospital, 291 N.W.2d 786, 788 (S.D.1980); Baker v. Jewell, 77 S.D. 573, 580, 96 N.W.2d 299, 304 (1959)).

¶12 In Morrison's case, there is no construction that can properly sustain the verdict. Evidence of uncontested damages was ignored by the jury. There was no evidence to contradict the fact that the injury and the surgeries inserting and removing the metal screws were painful. Nor was there any evidence to conclude that Morrison did not suffer some level of disability as a result of the accident. Furthermore, Morrison received 100% of her claims for medical expenses and lost earnings, so it is not possible to presume that the jury reduced its award because of contributory negligence. Even had they done so, the result would have been reduced awards for pain and suffering and disability, not complete elimination of such awards.

¶13 Mineral Palace also relies on Bakker v. Irvine, 519 N.W.2d 41, (S.D.1994), for support for its position that a new trial should not have been granted. Bakker concerned a claim for negligence arising out of...