Federal Judge Grants School System's Request for New Trial, Despite Jury Siding With Teacher on Disability Discrimination Claims
“A court finding that the evidence was sufficient for the jury’s verdict to survive a Rule 50 motion for judgment as a matter of law will often find the same evidence was sufficient for the verdict to survive a Rule 59 motion for new trial,” the court said. “Nevertheless, as the First Circuit has explained, the standards for the two motions are different and, ‘[i]n some cases, the evidence might preclude judgment as a matter of law and yet lean so heavily in the other direction so as to justify a district judge in ordering a new trial.'”