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Riddle v. Golden Isles Broadcasting LLC

The trial court was not authorized to interfere with the jury's general damages award for the defendant's slander per se.

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A Glynn County jury found Golden Isles Broadcasting, LLC, liable to Travis S. Riddle for defamatory statements made in a radio broadcast and awarded him $100,000 in damages. Following the grant of a new trial as to damages only, a second jury awarded Riddle $25,000. Riddle appeals, contending, among other things, that the court abused its discretion in granting a new trial as to damages only pursuant to OCGA § 51-12-12.1 For the following reasons, we agree and reverse. 1. Riddle contends the trial court abused its discretion in finding that the first jury’s award of $100,000 for slander per se was contrary to the preponderance of the evidence adduced in that trial and, therefore, erred in granting a new trial on the issue of damages only pursuant to OCGA § 51-12-12.

The record reveals that, following a hearing on Golden Isles’s motion for new trial, the trial court stated that “I feel like the amount of the verdict is excessive, so I am going to unless Riddle agrees to reduce it to sixty thousand dollars, I’m going to grant a new trial.” The judge did not explain his basis for concluding that the award was excessive, noting only that he had “never seen or heard about a slander case in any of the jurisdictions where he was the trial judge.” Riddle did not agree to remit $40,000 of the damages awarded; consequently, the court issued an order finding the award of damages “excessive in that it was inconsistent with the preponderance of the evidence,” and granted a new trial “as to the issue of damages only,” pursuant to “OCGA § 51-12-12 b.”

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