Cite as: 518 U. S. 415 (1996)
Scalia, J., dissenting
[that] would not be unconstitutional" under the Seventh Amendment, id., at 448.
"This is a prohibition to the courts of the United States to re-examine any facts tried by a jury in any other manner. The only modes known to the common law to reexamine such facts, are the granting of a new trial by the court where the issue was tried, or to which the record was properly returnable; or the award of a venire facias de novo, by an appellate court, for some error of law which intervened in the proceedings.
. . . . . "[I]f the evidence were now before us, it would not be competent for this court to reverse the judgment for any error in the verdict of the jury at the trial . . . ." Id., at 447-449.
Nor was the common-law proscription on reexamination limited to review of the correctness of the jury's determination of liability on the facts. No less than the existence of liability, the proper measure of damages "involves only a question of fact," St. Louis, I. M. & S. R. Co. v. Craft, 237 U. S. 648, 661 (1915), as does a "motio[n] for a new trial based on the ground that the damages . . . are excessive," Metropolitan R. Co. v. Moore, 121 U. S. 558, 574 (1887). As appeals from denial of such motions necessarily pose a factual question, courts of the United States are constitutionally forbidden to entertain them.
"No error of law appearing upon the record, this court cannot reverse the judgment because, upon examination of the evidence, we may be of the opinion that the jury should have returned a verdict for a less amount. If the jury acted upon a gross mistake of facts, or were governed by some improper influence or bias, the remedy therefore rested with the court below, under its gen-
453
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