Art. 1972.Peremptory Grounds

Louisiana's new trial rules split into two tracks, and Article 1972 covers the mandatory one. When a party's contradictory motion for new trial fits one of the three grounds this article lists, the court has no discretion to refuse — a new trial shall be granted. That is why these are called peremptory grounds: peremptory here means mandatory, a command to the court, a different sense of the word from the peremption deadline that governs nullity actions for fraud under Article 2004.

The first ground applies when the verdict or judgment appears clearly contrary to the law and the evidence — not a close call the court might have decided differently, but an outcome the record cannot support. The second covers newly discovered evidence: something important to the case that the party did not know about at trial and could not, despite due diligence, have uncovered before or during it. The third addresses jury bribery or misconduct so serious that it kept impartial justice from being done.

Because grounds two and three rest on facts outside the trial record — what evidence has since come to light, or what happened among the jurors — Article 1975 requires the party invoking either one to verify the factual allegations by affidavit. The first ground, resting entirely on the existing record, carries no such requirement. A party who cannot show any of these three grounds is not without recourse; Article 1973 gives the court separate, discretionary authority to grant a new trial for good ground even when none of these mandatory triggers applies.