Cunningham v. Martin

HARSHBARGER, Justice:

Mary Ellen Cunningham sued Elvin Martin in Kanawha County Circuit Court for assault, battery and statutory insult, W.Va. Code, 55-7-2. 1 Apparently they had a two and one-half hour altercation in an office of a public accounting firm, Martin and Cunningham. (This Cunningham was Mary Ellen’s husband.) A jury found for Ms. Cunningham and awarded her $65,000 compensatory and $130,000 punitive damages.

Martin alleged here that the trial court wrongly failed to order a new trial because damages were excessive, permitted a physician to testify to matters from hospital records…