Schonberg

Sami Sehonberg, appellant, a diamond merchant doing business in Antwerp, sued for and recovered from Anna Perry, respondent, a Beverly Hills housewife and his cousin, $35,000. He charged Anna had fraudulently breached a contract involving the purchase of diamonds which she had persuaded him to allow her to negotiate with one Michelangelo Fucile, who was her friend. The contract was made in 1958 in Antwerp or Genoa, or both, and was to be performed in Genoa. Sami also asked for exemplary damages and the jury awarded him $40,000. This appeal is the result of a judgment in a second trial.

In the first trial, held in 1960, the jury returned a verdict of $35,000 compensatory damages and $10,000 exemplary damages in Sami’s favor. After the original trial, Anna’s motion for a new trial grounded on insufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s verdict, was granted. On appeal, the order was affirmed. (Schonberg v. Perry, 197 Cal.App.2d 53 [ 16 Cal.Rptr. 848 ].) In the matter at bench the trial court granted Anna’s motion for a new trial based on insufficiency of the evidence and additionally, on an error of law occurring at trial.

A motion to reconsider the new trial order was…