Mirage wins retrial in beating case

Wednesday, March 20, 2002 | 11:07 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court has granted a motion by the Mirage hotel-casino for a new trial on the complaint by a New York dockworker who says he was beaten and robbed of $100,000 at the Strip resort in 1992.

Joseph Canterino won a $5.8 million judgment in the district court trial in Las Vegas. But District Judge Stephen Huffaker ruled the amount was excessive and reduced it to $1.5 million.

Canterino refused to accept the smaller amount so Huffaker ordered a new trial. An appeal was then taken to the Supreme Court by Canterino to reinstate the original amount. The Mirage wanted a retrial of the entire case.

The Supreme Court originally ruled that the case should go back to District Court for a trial only on the damages that should be awarded Canterino. The court said Judge Huffaker was wrong when he did not let two of the eight jurors help determine the damages. The two jurors had found the Mirage was not liable to Canterino.

The Mirage then petitioned the court to reconsider its decision.

In an opinion written by Justice Cliff Young, the court said the entire issue should go back to trial -- both the question of the damages and if the Mirage was liable. Young wrote that "excluding jurors who disagreed on the liability issue from deciding the damages issue requires a new trial on all issues."

Justice Miriam Shearing dissented, saying that six of the eight jurors found Mirage was liable to Canterino. "When a competent jury determines an issue that has been thoroughly (and expensively) litigated, it is a waste of time, money and talent to require a new jury to redetermine the issue.

"One of the principal criticisms of our civil justice system is that litigation has become too expensive for the vast majority of our citizens to be able to afford," said Shearing. "The result reached by the majority unnecessarily exacerbates that problem."