Piorkowski v. Liberty Mutual Insurance

Three claims of trial court error are made on appeal and each will be dealt with individually and in turn.

Denial of nonsuit.

At the close of plaintiffs’ case-in-chief, defendants’ motion for nonsuit was denied. At the end of the taking of testimony, the motion for nonsuit was renewed and again denied, as was defendants’ motion for directed verdict.

The denial of defendants’ motion for nonsuit at the close of plaintiffs’ case-in-chief was error. Plaintiffs were required to link causally the dynamiting operation nearby with their well becoming unusable. This they sought to do by coupling a…