1. Verdicts Rendered Contrary to Law or Against Weight of Evidence

• Jurisdiction: New York

1. Verdicts Rendered Contrary to Law or Against Weight of Evidence

The determination as to whether to set aside a verdict as contrary to the weight of the evidence is within the discretion of the trial court, and the court’s decision will not be disturbed “absent a showing of an abuse of that discretion.”²⁷ The standard the courts use for making that determination is that “[a] jury verdict should not be set aside as against the weight of the evidence unless the jury could not have reached the verdict by any fair interpretation of the evidence.”²⁸

In ruling on a motion to set aside a verdict and to direct judgment in favor of a party entitled to judgment as a matter of law pursuant to CPLR 4404(a), the court’s role is not to determine whether the jury erred in weighing the evidence presented, but whether there is any valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences that could possibly lead rational people to the conclusion reached by the jury on the basis of the evidence presented at trial.²⁹

In Gomez v. 192 East 151st Street Associates, L.P.,³⁰ a case involving a slip and fall in a bathroom at plaintiff’s workplace, the defendant...