2000

Torts — Contracts — Insurance — Action by plaintiff who leased property for use as parking lot and contracted with another party to operate the parking lot, against insurance agency which agreed to add lessee as additional insured to operator’s liability insurance policy but failed to do so, with result that plaintiff has been required to expend attorney’s fees and costs in defending a suit arising out of a robbery which occurred at parking lot — Damages — Additur — Error to deny plaintiff’s motion for additur where jury found defendant liable but awarded only 16% of damages shown by exhibits — Error to deny additur where amount awarded could only have been arrived at by speculation and conjecture because it bears no reasonable relation to damages proved — Intervention — Where court granted motion to intervene by lessor of parking lot property, court erred in failing to give intervenor notice of trial and failing to include reference to intervenor on verdict form — It was inconsistent and confusing to admit into evidence proof of intervenor’s damages and then remove intervenor from jury’s consideration simply because intervenor was not a plaintiff — Attorney’s fees — Requests for admissions — Abuse of discretion to summarily deny plaintiff’s motion for fees and expenses incurred in proving matters which defendant should have admitted — Expenses incurred by successful litigant as result of opposing party’s failure to admit requests for admissions may not be assessed against opposing party for denying request to admit hotly-contested, central issue in case — No error in failure to reduce judgment on basis of plaintiff’s comparative negligence where action was a promissory estoppel action to create insurance coverage rather than a negligence action