Twete v. Mullin

Citations

• 2019 ND 184
• 931 N.W.2d 198

Syllabus

A district court's denial of a motion for new trial is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. A court abuses its discretion if it acts in an arbitrary, unreasonable, or unconscionable manner its decision is not the product of a rational mental process leading to a reasoned determination or it misinterprets or misapplies the law. Unopposed jury instructions become the law of the case. A party on appeal cannot complain about error that is of their own making. A district court considering a new trial motion based on insufficiency of the evidence may not substitute its own judgment for that of the jury, or act as a thirteenth juror when the evidence is such that different persons would naturally and fairly come to different conclusions, but may set aside a jury verdict when, in considering and weighing all the evidence, the court's judgment tells it the verdict is wrong because it is manifestly against the weight of the evidence. Absent statutory or contractual authority, the American Rule assumes parties to a lawsuit bear their own attorney fees.