Meinberg

In this action the plaintiff recovered a judgment upon the verdict of a jury against the defendants in the sum of $750, as damages for personal injuries alleged to have been inflicted upon the plaintiff as the result of an assault and battery committed upon him by the defendant Catherine E. Jordan, wife of the defendant F. J. Jordan. The appeal is from an order granting the defendants ’ motion for a new trial upon “the sole ground that the damages awarded to the plaintiff . . . are excessive.”

It is the well-settled rule that an order granting a new trial will not be disturbed upon appeal save upon a showing of an abuse of the discretion vested in the trial court. The defendants’ motion for a new trial in the present case was based upon all of the statutory grounds; and it is equally well settled that an order granting a new trial must be affirmed without regard to the ground upon which it is specifically based if it could be rightfully granted upon any of the grounds upon which the motion was made. The latter rule is subject to the exception that in passing upon the correctness of the order granting a new trial the appellate court may not consider the insufficiency of the…