Rule 78.10.Additur and Remittitur.

Rule 78.10 covers what happens when a court decides a jury's damage award is too low (calling for additur) or too high (calling for remittitur) instead of granting an outright new trial on damages. It lays out the full sequence from the initial motion through any appellate involvement.

Subsection (a) sets the filing deadline: a motion for additur or remittitur must be filed within the same time Rule 78.04 gives for filing a motion for new trial. Subsection (b) then describes what happens if the trial court grants the motion, in whole or in part. The order must give the party opposing the relief the option to elect a new trial instead, and that election must be filed within thirty days of the order. The order itself must specify whether any resulting new trial would cover damages only or all issues. If the opposing party does not make a timely election, it is deemed to have accepted the additur or remittitur, and the trial court then amends the judgment to reflect it.

Subsection (c) extends the process to the appellate level. A party that asked for additur or remittitur in the trial court but received less than the full relief it wanted may renew that request on appeal. If the appellate court grants more relief, it must likewise give the opposing party the option to elect a new trial in the circuit court, with the election due within thirty days of the appellate mandate, and the appellate decision must specify whether the new trial covers damages or all issues. The same accept-by-default rule applies: no timely election means acceptance, and the trial court amends the judgment.

Subsection (d) protects a party who consents to additur or remittitur from being trapped by that consent — it may still argue on appeal that the original verdict was proper, or that the additur or remittitur was excessive, though it cannot use that argument to initiate its own appeal; it can only raise the point on the other party's appeal. Subsection (e) closes the rule with the same one-time limit that governs new trials under Rule 78.02: neither the trial court nor the appellate court may award additur or remittitur more than once on the ground that damages are against the weight of the evidence.