Miller v. Swift’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The question before us is whether, by thus specifying a deliberate intention to make no award for one (or more) elements of damages, the jury has returned a verdict with a patent irregularity which is waived by failing to timely object, or whether this represents a complete verdict which is subject to challenge as inadequate on a motion for a new trial. It is our opinion that there is a complete verdict; that it may be inadequate but it is not inconsistent .... It is indeed a “booby trap” to send back a jury which has flatly decided that the claimant’s pain and suffering is worth nothing to replace the “-0-” with a dollar amount. If “-0-” is inadequate, this forces the lawyer seeking to represent a litigant who has just been abused by an inadequate jury verdict to further jeopardize his client’s interest by asking that this hostile jury reconsider. Erasing the zero and replacing it with a few dollars will not correct the inadequacy. The first verdict as complete should be received and should be subject to a motion for a new trial which should be granted unless there is countervailing evidence such that the jury’s verdict, taken as a whole, withstands the test of inadequacy.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 941 F. Supp. 2d 834 - Edwards v. Target Corp.