§ 629.Motion For Judgment Notwithstanding Verdict

A judgment notwithstanding the verdict, commonly called a JNOV, lets the court override a jury's verdict when the losing party should have won as a matter of law. Before its power to rule on a new-trial motion expires, the court can render judgment for the aggrieved party against the verdict — either on its own motion, after five days' notice, or on that party's own motion — whenever a motion for a directed verdict for that party should have been granted, had one been made.

The timing of a JNOV motion runs on the new-trial-motion clock: it must be made within the period § 659 sets for a notice of intention to move for a new trial, briefing follows the § 659a schedule, and the hearing is set the way § 660 sets hearings on new-trial motions. Filing a JNOV motion doesn't extend the deadline for filing a new-trial notice, and the court can't rule on the JNOV motion until that new-trial deadline passes — if a new-trial motion is also pending, the court must rule on both together. The court's power to decide the JNOV motion expires exactly when its power to rule on a new-trial motion would, and an undecided JNOV motion is deemed denied at that point.

Appellate review is coordinated with the new-trial ruling. If both a JNOV motion and a new-trial motion are denied, but the appellate court finds the JNOV should have been granted, it orders judgment entered on appeal. If a new trial is granted to the JNOV movant while the JNOV motion itself is denied, that denial remains reviewable on appeal by the aggrieved party. And if the trial court grants both the JNOV and a new trial, the new-trial order only takes effect if the JNOV is reversed on appeal and the new-trial order itself isn't appealed, or is affirmed if it is.