Cite as: 509 U. S. 443 (1993)
O'Connor, J., dissenting
in this Nation as well.2 Indeed, the New Hampshire Supreme Court emphasized its importance over a century ago, observing that a court's duty to interfere with a disproportionate jury verdict "is absolutely necessary to the safe administration of justice, and ought, in all proper cases, to be asserted and exercised." Belknap v. Boston & Maine R. Co., 49 N. H. 358, 372 (1870). Accord, Gough v. Farr, 1 Y. & J. 477, 479-480, 148 Eng. Rep. 759, 760 (Ex. 1827) (Vaughan, B.) ("It is essential to the due administration of justice, that the Courts should exercise a salutary control over Juries" by requiring retrial where the amount of the verdict indicates that the jury "acted improperly, or upon a gross misconception of the facts"); id., at 478-479, 148 Eng. Rep., at 759-760
in a nice balance, but must be such as appear at first blush to be outrageous, and indicate passion or partiality in the jury").
2 G. Field, Law of Damages 685-686 (1876) ("[W]hen the verdict of the jury is so flagrantly excessive that the mind at once perceives that the verdict is unjust, it should be set aside"); id., at 684 (Court may set award aside "where it is apparent, from the amount of the verdict or otherwise, that the jury were influenced by passion, prejudice, corruption, or an evident mistake of the law or the facts"); 1 J. Sutherland, Law of Damages 810 (1882) (Where "the amount is so great or so small as to indicate" that "it is the result of a perverted judgment, and not that of [the jury's] cool and impartial deliberation," the court, "in its discretion, will interpose and set it aside"); Travis v. Barger, 24 Barb. 614, 629 (N. Y. 1857) (Damages award will be set aside where "so flagrantly outrageous and extravagant" as to evince "intemperance, passion, partiality or corruption"); Pleasants v. Heard, 15 Ark. 403, 406 (1855) (verdict to be set aside if the "amount of damages, upon all the facts of the case, . . . shocks our sense of justice"); Worster v. Proprietors of Canal Bridge, 33 Mass. 541, 547-548 (1835) (Court may interfere where damages are "manifestly exorbitant"); Belknap v. Boston & Maine R. Co., 49 N. H. 358, 372 (1870) (Where damages are so excessive that one familiar with case would conclude that the "jury . . . acted under the influence of a perverted judgment, it is the duty of the court in the exercise of a sound discretion to grant a new trial"). Accord, Pacific Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Haslip, 499 U. S. 1, 41 (1991) (Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment) ("[T]he extreme amount of an award compared to the actual damage inflicted can be some evidence of bias or prejudice in an appropriate case").
477
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