Barnes v. O'CONNELL

JOHNSON, Presiding Judge.

Andrew O’Connell and his father, Joseph O’Connell, sued Joe Barnes and Tammy Barnes for slander. A jury awarded Andrew O’Connell $6,000 and awarded Joseph O’Connell $175,000. The Barneses appeal, alleging the $175,000 award to Joseph O’Connell is both unsupported by the evidence and excessive. We disagree and affirm the judgment entered on the jury’s verdict.

The evidence shows that the Barneses hired Andrew O’Connell to appraise their coin collection. After spending an entire day cataloging and packaging the coins, Andrew took the coin collection to his father’s coin…