Latino v. Crane Rental Co.

The trial judge concluded, based on his post-verdict investigation, that the jury did not in fact reach the special verdicts for the plaintiff that were announced and affirmed in open court. He therefore granted the defendant Crane a new trial, the jury having been discharged more than a week earlier. When, however, a single justice of the Appeals Court, on the plaintiff’s request for interlocutory relief, ruled that the new trial order was “without force,” the trial judge ordered that judgment be entered pursuant to the verdicts returned in open court.

We allowed Crane’s application for…