18 S.E.2d 546 | Ga. | 1942
The judgment overruling the motion for new trial was in the following language: "A very careful review of the record discloses no error of law. . . Under our jurisprudence, jurors are the sole and exclusive judges of the weight and the credit to be given testimony. Certainly it must be admitted that if the jury believed it, and they evidently did, there is ample evidence in the record to authorize the verdict. The court does not feel inclined to set this verdict aside. There being no error of law, and the verdict being supported by the evidence, the motion is overruled, and a new trial refused." Held:
1. There is nothing in the order to show that the judge did not exercise his discretion in passing on said motion, or that he did not approve the finding of the jury.
2. The evidence supported the verdict.
There is nothing here to indicate that the judge considered the evidence as weak, unsatisfactory, and doubtful, and that he was not entirely satisfied with the verdict, as in Rogers v.State, supra; nor is the order overruling the motion susceptible of the construction that the verdict did not meet his approval, as this court interpreted the order in Central ofGeorgia Railway Co. v. Harden, supra. In the instant case the order did not recite that in the opinion of the judge the verdict was against the weight of the evidence, and one that he would not have agreed to had he been on the jury, and that it was against the decided preponderance of the testimony; but that, since there was evidence sufficient to support the verdict, for him to set it aside would be an usurpation of the powers of the jury, as inThompson v. Warren, supra. The order in McIntyre v.McIntyre, supra, contained language similar to that inThompson v. Warren. In Livingston v. Taylor, supra, the order said: "and there being evidence to support the verdict, the court does not feel authorized to set the verdict aside." This court construed the language used as an expression on the part of the judge that he had no authority to set aside the verdict if there was evidence to support it. There is no language in the order now under review to justify the belief that the judge was under any such impression. For aught that appears, he had kept in mind the fact that under our system of jurisprudence the trial judge has the power of supervision over verdicts after they have been rendered when a motion for new trial is before him, as pointed out in Central of Ga. Ry. Co. v. Harden, supra, and that the law imposes on him the duty of exercising his discretion in all such cases. His language, "The court does not feel inclined to set this verdict aside," follows immediately the statement that "there is ample evidence in the record to authorize the verdict," and can not under these circumstances be given a meaning similar to that of the expression "reluctantly" in the Harden case, supra. That, as recited, "jurors are the sole and exclusive judges of the weight and credit to be given testimony," is not to be doubted. McLendon v. Reynolds GroceryCo.,
2. The evidence, although conflicting, being sufficient to support the verdict, and the same being approved by the trial judge, the judgment overruling the motion, based only on the ground that the verdict was contrary to the evidence, will be
Affirmed. All the Justices concur.