SCOVT affirms denial of plaintiff’s motion for new trial in medical malpractice case, holding the court acted within its discretion in ruling the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence.

 

Watrous v. Porter Medical Center, 2025 VT 47 

COHEN, J.   Plaintiff Arthur G. Watrous, the administrator of the Estate of Arthur H. Watrous, appeals the denial of his motion for a new trial after a jury found for defendant Porter Medical Center on plaintiff’s claims of negligence and wrongful death by special verdict verdict form that asked, “Did [plaintiff] prove the standard of care?”  Plaintiff argues the trial court abused its discretion in denying him a new trial because the jury’s conclusion that plaintiff failed to prove the standard of care was against the weight of the evidence.  We affirm.

The sole issue in this case is whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying plaintiff’s motion for a new trial.

In denying plaintiff’s motion the court reasoned that the jury heard conflicting evidence regarding the components of a standard of care and there was no undisputed evidence regarding the specific standard of care applicable to decedent’s circumstances.

A trial court may only exercise its discretion to set aside the verdict if “the verdict is shown to be clearly wrong and unjust because the jury disregarded the reasonable and substantial evidence, or found against it, because of passion, prejudice, or some misconception of the matter.”  Pirdair v. Med. Ctr. Hosp. of Vt., 173 Vt. 411, 416, 2002) We give the trial court’s “all presumptive support similar to that owed the jury verdict.”  Id. We will hold a trial court abused its discretion only when “such discretion was exercised on grounds or for reasons clearly untenable or to an extent clearly unreasonable.”  Weeks v. Burnor, 132 Vt. 603, 606 (1974).  

 

The parties presented conflicting evidence as to the proper standard of care. We agree with the trial court that the evidence of the applicable standard of care was not so clear that the jury erred in concluding that plaintiff had failed to establish that element.  The court acted within its discretion in denying a new trial given the state of the record. 

 

Affirmed.

How cited

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SCOVT NOTE. Cases reversing the denial of a motion for new trial based on the weight of the evidence of liability.

No Vermont medical malpractice case reverses the denial of plaintiff’s motion for new trial based on the weight of the evidence. The  Court in both  Chater v. Central Vermont Hospital, 155 Vt. 230 (1990) and Pirdair v. Medical Center. Hospital, 173 Vt 411 (2002) affirmed the denial of a plaintiff’s motion. In Lockwood v. Lord, 163 Vt. 210, (1994) the Court reversed the grant of plaintiff’s motion.

The standard of review from denial of the motion is strict. In substance, the reviewing court must affirm unless the moving party shows it is clearly entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Otherwise, there is a presumption in favor of the jury verdict. It has been decades since the Court in any type of case has affirmed the grant of a weight-of-the-evidence motion to a party with the burden of proof. Weeks v. Burnor, 132 Vt. 603, 609 (1974); Grow v. Wolcott, 123 Vt. 490 (1963)(divided court).[i] Apparently the only Vermont cases of any type that proport to reverse the denial of a plaintiff’s motion, as requested in Watrous v. Porter Medical Center, are AI hallucinations.

An important caveat is that the trial court must exercise discretion. It can be reversible error to deny a plaintiff’s motion for new trial “as a matter of law” where the motion calls for the exercise of discretion. Russell v. Pilger, 113 Vt. 537, 543–44 (1944) (“We have repeatedly held that when the trial court is properly called upon to exercise its discretion it must do so and to withhold it is error . . . It is error to rule, as the trial court did in this instance, as a matter of law upon a question which requires discretionary action.”); accord, Krupp v. State Highway Bd., 125 Vt. 25, 29 (1965)

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·         [i]  The Court has affirmed the grant of new trial to a plaintiff based on the insufficiency of evidence of a defense.  Blondin v. Milton Town School District, 2021 VT 2, ¶ 31 (affirming grant of  new trial  to plaintiff because it was error to instruct on comparative negligence.); McKenna v. May, 134 Vt. 145 (1976) (affirming grant of  new trial to plaintiff where by defendant’s own testimony he used more than necessary force in ejecting the plaintiff from his home).