§ 9-11-50.Motions for directed verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict

Subsection (a) governs the directed verdict itself. A party can move for one at the close of an opponent’s evidence or at the close of the whole case, and moving at the earlier point doesn’t forfeit the right to put on evidence if the motion is denied — the case proceeds as though the motion had never been made. The motion must state its specific grounds, and a denial doesn’t waive a jury trial even if every party in the case has moved for a directed verdict. The governing standard: if there’s no conflict in the evidence on any material issue, and the evidence, with all reasonable deductions from it, demands a particular verdict, the court must direct that verdict.

Subsection (b) covers the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. When a motion for directed verdict made at the close of all the evidence is denied, or otherwise not granted, the court is deemed to have sent the case to the jury subject to a later ruling on the legal questions the motion raised. A party who made that motion can come back within 30 days after entry of judgment and ask to have the verdict and judgment set aside in favor of judgment consistent with the original motion — or, if the jury never returned a verdict, within 30 days after the jury was discharged. That motion can be joined with, or made in the alternative to, a motion for a new trial. When a verdict was returned, the court can let the judgment stand, or reopen it and either order a new trial or direct entry of judgment as if the directed verdict had originally been granted; when no verdict came back at all, the court can direct entry of judgment as if the directed verdict had been granted, or order a new trial instead.

Subsections (c) and (d) handle what happens once a judgment notwithstanding the verdict is granted or denied. If the court grants it, it must also rule on any accompanying new-trial motion, specifying whether that motion would be granted if the judgment is later vacated or reversed — a conditional ruling that doesn’t affect the judgment’s finality, but that controls whether a new trial follows if the appellate court reverses. A party whose verdict was set aside this way can still serve its own motion for a new trial within 30 days of that judgment. If the motion notwithstanding the verdict is denied instead, the party who won that ruling can, as appellee, argue for a new trial if the appellate court later decides the trial court should have granted it.

Subsection (e) closes the loop for a directed verdict wrongly denied in the first place: if the appellate court agrees the denial was error, it can direct that judgment be entered in accordance with the motion or order a new trial, whichever the interests of justice require on the facts of the case.