Van, Sr., et ux., v. Schmidt
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs sued defendant, seeking recovery for injuries allegedly sustained in an automobile collision. This case concerned the proper standard of review and the appropriate remedy when an appellate court reviewed a trial court's order granting a new trial on the ground that the jury verdict was contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence, where the trial court's order was premised, at least in part, on an error of law. The court held that an appellate court properly applied a de novo standard of review to a trial court's conclusions of law in an order granting a new trial based on the manifest weight of the evidence, giving no deference to the trial court's legal conclusions. Although a trial court's conclusions of law were not entitled to deference, its findings of facts and determinations of credibility were still entitled to deference because of the trial court's superior vantage point of having been present during the entire trial. Although the court concluded that the First District was correct in reversing the trial court's order, the court quashed the First District's decision because it concluded that reinstatement of the jury verdict was not the proper remedy in this case. Accordingly, the court remanded for reconsideration.
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