quotient verdict

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quotient verdict

One in which jurors cannot agree on an award, such as for a contested condemnation. They agree to each write down the amount they think should be awarded, and then someone takes the average of all those numbers.By agreement among themselves,the jury awards the average amount to the plaintiff. (Quotient verdicts are illegal and may be set aside if the jurors were foolhardy enough to leave their slips of paper and calculations in the jury room when they depart.)

References in periodicals archive ?

Finally, your post-trial motion should request an evidentiary hearing on the quotient verdict issue.

The arguments--impermissible quotient verdict and disregard of jury instructions.

If the court allows the use of the quotient verdict instructions, and the jury does not follow those instructions, you may have a good argument for a new trial based upon this fact alone, leaving aside the direct attack on the verdict itself.

Following an evidentiary hearing at which all six jurors testified, the trial court agreed and granted the landowner a new trial not on the basis of a quotient verdict, but on the specific ground that the jury had failed to follow the court's instructions for determining damages.

(25.) See, e.g., Urbas at 135,636 NE2d at 1229-1230 (appellate court could not have an evidentiary hearing on the quotient verdict issue because the defendant failed to request such a hearing from the trial court); Graham at 592-93, 474 NE2d at 812-813 (appellate court reversed and remanded for evidentiary hearing on quotient verdict issue; request preserved because made below).