Carter v. MacMillan Oil Co., Inc.

CARTER, Justice.

Plaintiff appeals from an order sustaining a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict following a jury verdict awarding him $10,500 in actual damages and $5000 in punitive damages in a malicious prosecution action. The trial court’s ruling granting that motion was based on its conclusion that its instructions to the jury permitted recovery on an improper legal theory. In. addition, the trial court sustained an alternative motion for new trial on the same ground. We hold that an incorrect legal theory was submitted to the jury, but that the proper remedy is a new trial…