Bonner

This is an appeal from an order granting defendant’s motion for a new trial in an action for damages for libel. The jury awarded $30,000 as compensatory damages and $45,000 as exemplary damages. The order for new trial was granted upon the following grounds: “ (1) Excessive damages, appearing to have been given under the influence of passion or prejudice; (2) Insufficiency of the evidence to justify the verdict; (3J That the verdict is against the law; (4) Error in law, occurring at the trial and excepted to by the defendant.” Where such a motion is granted for insufficiency of evidence to justify the verdict, an appellate court will not find that there has been an abuse of discretion until it has considered the entire record. (Gaster v. Hinkley, 85 Cal. App. 55, 60 [ 258 Pac. 988 ].)

The granting of a new trial is a matter resting so largely in the discretion of the trial court that its action will not be disturbed upon appeal except upon a manifest and unmistakable abuse. On appeal every presumption is in favor of the order and the plaintiff must show affirmatively that the order was erroneous. (Rosenberg v. George A. Moore & Co., 194 Cal. 392, 396 [ 229 Pac. 34 ].) It has been…