opinion: Berniece SILVERTHORN, Appellant, v. William HENNIGAN, Jr., Appellee. Berniece SILVERTHORN, Appellee, v. William HENNIGAN, Jr., Appellant.
  Nos. 20461, 20504.
  United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
  March 17, 1971.
  Dale L. Spencer, Des Moines, Iowa, made argument for Berniece Silverthorn.
  L. R. Voigts, Des Moines, Iowa, made argument for William Hennigan, Jr.
  Before MATTHES, Chief Judge, VAN OOSTERHOUT and GIBSON, Circuit Judges.
  PER CURIAM.
  In this diversity litigation the plaintiff sued to recover damages resulting from injuries to her person and property suffered in an automobile collision in Des Moines, Iowa. She has appealed from the final judgment against her entered on July 8, 1970. Defendant filed a cross-appeal from the denial of several of its motions.
  At the first trial a verdict and judgment were rendered in favor of the plaintiff for $27,500 with interest as provided by law plus her costs. Thereupon the defendant filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and motion for a new trial. The trial court denied the motion for a judgment n. o. v. but granted the motion for a new trial on the grounds that to allow the verdict to stand would constitute an injustice to the defendant and would represent a gross miscarriage of justice; that the evidence did not warrant the verdict rendered; and that the jury did not follow the court’s instructions.
  The second trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for the defendant. The plaintiff contends on this appeal that the trial court abused its discretion in setting aside the verdict of the jury in her favor and granting a new trial.
  The law is well established that the granting of a new trial is a matter within the sound discretion of the trial judge and unless that discretion patently has been abused, his ruling on the motion is not subject to review. Bates v. Hensley, 414 F.2d 1006 (8th Cir. 1969); Trice v. Commercial Union Assurance Co., 334 F.2d 673 (6th Cir. 1964); Minnesota Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Wright, 312 F.2d 655 (8th Cir. 1963); Paine v. St. Paul Union Stockyards Co., 28 F.2d 463 (8th Cir. 1928).
  We have carefully canvassed the record and are fully convinced that there is no rational basis for holding that the trial court acted arbitrarily or abused its discretion in granting a new trial.
  In view of the disposition of plaintiff’s appeal, it is unnecessary to discuss the cross-appeal.
  The judgment is affirmed.
instruction: What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
  Intervenors who participated as parties at the courts of appeals should be counted as either appellants or respondents when it can be determined whose position they supported. For example, if there were two plaintiffs who lost in district court, appealed, and were joined by four intervenors who also asked the court of appeals to reverse the district court, the number of appellants should be coded as six.
  In some cases there is some confusion over who should be listed as the appellant and who as the respondent. This confusion is primarily the result of the presence of multiple docket numbers consolidated into a single appeal that is disposed of by a single opinion. Most frequently, this occurs when there are cross appeals and/or when one litigant sued (or was sued by) multiple litigants that were originally filed in district court as separate actions. The coding rule followed in such cases should be to go strictly by the designation provided in the title of the case. The first person listed in the title as the appellant should be coded as the appellant even if they subsequently appeared in a second docket number as the respondent and regardless of who was characterized as the appellant in the opinion.
  To clarify the coding conventions, consider the following hypothetical case in which the US Justice Department sues a labor union to strike down a racially discriminatory seniority system and the corporation (siding with the position of its union) simultaneously sues the government to get an injunction to block enforcement of the relevant civil rights law. From a district court decision that consolidated the two suits and declared the seniority system illegal but refused to impose financial penalties on the union, the corporation appeals and the government and union file cross appeals from the decision in the suit brought by the government. Assume the case was listed in the Federal Reporter as follows:
  United States of America,
  Plaintiff, Appellant
  v
  International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
  Defendant, Appellee.
  International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
  Defendants, Cross-appellants
  v
  United States of America.
  Widgets, Inc. & Susan Kuersten Sheehan, President & Chairman
  of the Board
  Plaintiff, Appellants,
  v
  United States of America,
  Defendant, Appellee.
  This case should be coded as follows:Appellant = United States, Respondents = International Brotherhood of Widget Workers Widgets, Inc., Total number of appellants = 1, Number of appellants that fall into the category "the federal government, its agencies, and officials" = 1, Total number of respondents = 3, Number of respondents that fall into the category "private business and its executives" = 2, Number of respondents that fall into the category "groups and associations" = 1.
  Your task is to identify the state of the first listed state or local government agency that is an appellant.
choices: not Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachussets Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New New New New North North Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode South South Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Wisconsin Wyoming Virgin Puerto District Guam not Panama