DeWald v. King’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

43 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 47 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “We can tell from the verdict form what elements the jury considered in reaching its verdict. Although the jury should not have written anything on the form except its general verdict, once it went further and listed medical expenses and lost wages, we cannot ignore that information. On the face of the verdict form, the jury makes plain that it completely accepted plaintiff’s evidence of medical expenses. Further, the face of the verdict form shows that the jury valued plaintiff’s loss of income at $1,120. No other element of damages is listed. In Rome [v. Kelly Springfield, 217 Va. 943 , 234 S.E.2d 277 (1977)], we concluded that — because the verdict was in the exact amount of the evidence of medical expenses and lost wages and because the evidence of the other damage elements was uncontroverted — the jury had disregarded the trial court’s damage instruction. In this case, we reach the same conclusion but for a different reason. Here, it is not the ultimate verdict that establishes the disregard of the damage instruction. Here, what the jury wrote on the verdict form makes clear that only two elements of damages were considered. We hold that the verdict was inadequate and should have been set aside.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Tolliver v. Gee

2. “like Rome. . . there was substantial uncontroverted evidence of each element of damages referred to in the pertinent jury instruction.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Page v. K-Mart Corp.