A judge’s post-trial findings can foreclose a losing party’s appeal.

Evidence

From the beginning, Skinner never seemed to regard the case against Beatrice in the same light as the one against Grace. After the trial the judge had made some additional findings. He had decreed that, based on the evidence, groundwater from the fifteen acres had never reached the Woburn wells. Because of the compound nature of the questions the judge had posed to the jury, this specific question had never been answered. Skinner took it upon himself to answer it, and in doing so he made any appeal on the Beatrice verdict much more difficult. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2899

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes material on how procedural design—here compound special questions—steers outcomes as much as evidence does. — connects to: Prejudicial closing arguments can get a verdict overturned on appeal. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 858