Williams v. Washington

In this case, Appellants seek review of the trial court’s orders directing verdicts for Appellees and “reinstating” a previously granted, then vacated, order on summary judgment. We reverse.

Following an eight-day trial and a jury verdict in favor of Appellants on claims of negligence and negligent hiring and retention, the trial court granted summary judgment and directed verdicts for Appel-lees.

It was improper to grant summary judgment after trial as summary judgments are pretrial mechanisms, the “principle function [of which] is to avoid the time and expense of a useless trial if it clearly…