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Baker v. National State Bank6/21/2002
d in BMW, but to also determine whether the punitive damages award reflected prejudice, passion or mistake, warranting a new trial on that issue. The trial court found the following:
Based on the instructions, the evidence that the jury could have found credible and important, I cannot say on the facts of this case and the verdict that the award reflects a miscarriage of justice or prejudice, passion or mistake warranting a new trial on the amount of punitive damages.
While it's a sizeable award, considering the run of the cases presented to me by the plaintiff as well as the defendant's cases on the multiple, the amount does not rise to that level. And I'm satisfied that a new trial is not warranted and I don't believe that was even impliedly suggested by the Supreme Court in its decision.
A trial court may correct an excessive jury award through remittitur. Remittitur is encouraged where there is adequate support for the jury verdict, but where the excessiveness of the damages indicates that a miscarriage of justice has occurred. Fertile v. St. Michael's Med. Ctr., 169 N.J. 481, 499 (2001). Remittitur is inappropriate when the damages award is so excessive that it suggests that the entire verdict was tainted. Taweel v. Starn's Shoprite Supermarket, 58 N.J. 227, 231 (1971). On appellate review of the trial court's decision, a reviewing court must give due deference to the trial judge's "feel of the case." Baxter v. Fairmount Food Co., 74 N.J. 588, 600 (1977).
The Bank argues that the $4 million punitive damages award requires a new trial because it was the product of mistake, based upon the incorrect valuation of the Bank. The Bank maintains that the trial court erred in refusing to reconsider the issue of valuation and precluding the Bank from submitting new evidence of its value at the time of plaintiffs' termination. The Bank claims that its true value at that time was only $25.6 million, in contrast to the stipulated value of $438 million.
At trial, the Bank agreed to a stipulation of its value, based on the value of the Bank (at that time, known as the Constellation Bank Corporation) on March 16, 1994, the date it merged with CoreStates. The value of $280 million was derived from the number of shares CoreStates exchanged with the Bank. The court then informed the jury that the trading value of that stock, at the time of the trial, was $438.2 million.
As mentioned in this court's unabridged opinion in this case, the Bank agreed to a stipulated value because, after the jury concluded on July 2, 1996 that punitive damages could be awarded, the trial court informed counsel the next day that the parties should either stipulate to a value or proceed with witnesses. Baker, supra, No. A-488-96T5 at 57. The Bank had no witnesses and was unwilling for plaintiffs' expert witness to take the stand. The Bank thus argues that it only agreed to the stipulation because it was the lesser of two evils.
The Bank further disputes the trial court's and this court's findings that it acted unreasonably in failing to provide discovery of its value and in stonewalling plaintiffs.
The trial court did not err in refusing to revisit the issue of valuation. Because the Supreme Court already ruled on this issue, its holding was the "law of the case," precluding any further litigation. That doctrine prevents the re-litigation of issues already decided on appeal and "most commonly applies to the binding nature of appellate decisions upon a trial court if the matter is remanded for further proceedings, or upon a different appellate panel which may be asked to reconsider the same issue in a subsequent appeal." Slowinski v. Valley Nat'l Bank
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