Cite as: 512 U. S. 415 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
In the 19th century, both before and after the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, many American courts reviewed damages for "partiality" or "passion and prejudice." Nevertheless, because of the difficulty of probing juror reasoning, passion and prejudice review was, in fact, review of the amount of awards. Judges would infer passion, prejudice, or partiality from the size of the award.4 Coffin v. Coffin, 4 Mass. 1, 41 (1808) (In cases of personal injury, "a verdict may be set aside for excessive damages" when "from the exorbitancy of them the court must conclude that the jury acted from passion, partiality, or corruption"); Taylor v. Giger, 3 Ky. 586, 587 (1808) ("In actions of tort . . . a new trial ought not to be granted for excessiveness of damages, unless the damages found are so enormous as to shew that the jury were under some improper influence, or were led astray by the violence of prejudice or passion"); McConnell v. Hampton, 12 Johns. 234, 235 (N. Y. 1815) (granting new trial for excessive damages and noting: "That Courts have a legal right to grant new trials, for excessive damages in actions for torts, is no where denied . . ."); Belknap v. Boston & Maine R. Co., 49 N. H. 358, 374 (1870) (setting aside both compensatory and punitive damages, because "[w]e think it evident that the jury were affected by some partiality or prejudice").
Nineteenth-century treatises similarly recognized judges' authority to award new trials on the basis of the size of damages awards. 1 D. Graham, A Treatise on the Law of New Trials 442 (2d ed. 1855) ("[E]ven in personal torts, where the jury find outrageous damages, clearly evincing partiality, prejudice and passion, the court will interfere for the relief
4 This aspect of passion and prejudice review has been recognized in many opinions of this Court. Browning-Ferris Industries of Vt., Inc. v. Kelco Disposal, Inc., 492 U. S. 257, 272 (1989); Pacific Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Haslip, 499 U. S. 1, 21, n. 10 (1991); id., at 27 (Scalia, J., concurring); TXO Production Corp. v. Alliance Resources Corp., 509 U. S. 443, 467 (1993) (Kennedy, J., concurring); id., at 476-478 (O'Connor, J., dissenting).
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