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257 N.C. 279

125 S.E.2d 462

Goldston v. Wright

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided May 23, 1962

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1962-05-23

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““Defendant assigns as error the denial by the trial court of his motion for a judgment of involuntary nonsuit made at the close of plaintiff’s evidence; defendant offered no evidence. This question is not presented. When the trial court, in its discretion, set aside the verdict, and ordered a new trial, the case remained on the civil issue docket for trial de novo, unaffected by rulings made therein during the trial. . . . Defendant, in respect to the denial of his motion for a judgment of involuntary nonsuit, has nothing to appeal from, for the very simple reason that in this respect there is neither a final judgment nor any interlocutory order of the superior court affecting his rights.””

quoted by 2 later decisions, including 4 N.C. App. 417 - Michaels v. Carson, 139 N.C. App. 756 - Burchette v. Lynch

“The trial judge has the discretionary power to set aside a verdict when, in his opinion, it would work injustice to let it stand; and, if no question of law or legal inference is involved in the motion, his action in so doing is not subject to review on appeal in the absence of a clear abuse of discretion.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Piazza v. Kirkbride

Relies on Veazey v. City of Durham · Walston v. Greene · Goodman v. . Goodman

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1962-05-23

How this case has been cited

Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently May 2019

20 state decisions

120196219701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

PER Cubiam.

¶1 The rule is thoroughly established in this jurisdiction that when a trial court sets aside a verdict in its discretion, as here, its action in so doing is not subject to review by appeal to the Supreme Court, in the absence of a manifest abuse of discretion. Walston v. Greene, 246 N.C. 617, 99 S.E. 2d 805; Veazey v. Durham, 231 N.C. 357, 57 S.E. 2d 377; Goodman v. Goodman, 201 N.C. 808; 161 S.E. 686; Bird v. Bradburn, 131 N.C. 488, 42 S.E. 936; Brink v. Black, 74 N.C. 329. The record discloses no abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court. The appeal is without substance and will be dismissed. Goodman v. Goodman, supra.

¶2 Defendant assigns as error the denial by the trial court of his mo *280 tion for a judgment of involuntary nonsuit made at the close of plaintiff’s evidence; defendant offered no evidence. This question is not presented. When the trial court, in its discretion, set aside the verdict, and ordered a new trial, the case remained on the civil issue docket for trial de novo, unaffected by rulings made therein during the trial conducted by Judge Phillips. Gillikin v. Mason, 256 N.C. 533, 124 S.E. 2d 541. Defendant, in respect to the denial of his motion for a judgment of involuntary nonsuit, has nothing to appeal from, for the very simple reason that in this respect there is neither a final judgment nor any interlocutory order of the superior court affecting his rights. Veazey v. Durham, supra; G.S. 1-277-278.

¶3 Appeal dismissed.

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