Following a three-day trial, a Jeff Davis County jury found in favor of Odis Wilcox on his trespass claim against Jimmie Wright, and awarded Wilcox $22,000 in damages.1 The trial court denied Wright’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, motion for new trial, and motion to reduce damages, finding that the award was within the range of evidence presented. On appeal, Wright contends there was insufficient evidence to support the jury’s award and that the award was excessive as a matter of law. Finding no error, we affirm. Where a jury returns a verdict and it has the approval of the trial judge, the verdict must be affirmed on appeal if there is any evidence to support it as the jurors are the sole and exclusive judges of the weight and credit given the evidence. This Court must construe the evidence with every inference and presumption in favor of upholding the verdict, and after judgment, the evidence must be construed to uphold the verdict even where the evidence is in conflict. As long as there is some evidence to support the verdict, the denial of the motion for new trial will not be disturbed. Citations and punctuation omitted. In re Copelan , 250 Ga. App. 856, n. 1 553 SE2d 278 2001; see also OCGA § § 9-12-4 “Verdicts shall have a reasonable intendment and shall receive a reasonable construction. They shall not be avoided unless from necessity.”; 51-12-12 a “The question of damages is ordinarily one for the jury; and the court should not interfere with the jury’s verdict unless the damages awarded by the jury are clearly so inadequate or so excessive as to be inconsistent with the preponderance of the evidence in the case.”; Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Stephens , 14 Ga. App. 173, 176 80 SE 516 1913 in construing verdicts, “every reasonable presumption sustaining their validity shall be indulged”. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, the evidence showed that Wright and Wilcox owned adjacent parcels of land in Jeff Davis County. Wilcox, who was approximately 80 years old at the time of this litigation, had lived on the property for almost 40 years. After Wright purchased the adjoining property in 1994, he asked the county to move a road in front of his home, but the county refused to do so without Wilcox’s permission. After Wilcox refused to allow the road to be moved, Wright hired surveyors Merlin and Everette Tomberlin to mark the property lines, and Wright was present while Everette Tomberlin performed the survey. Prior to performing the survey, the Tomberlins failed to review a 1954 plat the “Wooten Plat”, which had been recorded with Wilcox’s deed in 1959. Wright did not notify Wilcox of the impending survey, and Wilcox only found out about it when he discovered Wright and Everette Tomberlin near the property line during the survey. At that time, Wilcox showed Wright and Tomberlin the property lines according to the Wooten Plat. Even so, relying upon the Tomberlin survey hereinafter, the “Tomberlin Plat”, Wright sued Wilcox for trespass, claiming that Wilcox wrongfully removed timber from his property four years earlier. The service of this suit was the first notice Wilcox received regarding a dispute about his alleged trespass or the missing timber.
Wilcox counterclaimed against Wright for trespass, relying upon the Wooten Plat. Wilcox also contended that Wright negligently hired the Tomberlin surveying company, and that Everette Tomberlin, an unlicenced surveyor, negligently conducted the survey. As a result of Wright’s claim against him for trespass, Wilcox had to hire another surveyor, Payne Copeland, to confirm the Wooten Plat’s boundary lines.
