XpresSpa Group Inc (XSPA)

[JJSeabrook]

The filing of an appeal does NOT mean that anybody is going to get another day in court. It just means that for the reasons stated in an appeal that what occurred at the trial court level is going to be reviewed by the appellate court to decide whether or not error occurred in the proceedings. Here's a blurb that outlines what the appellate court could do:



What decision can the appellate court make?

Answer:
Because the appeals court only reviews the actions of the lower court not the actions of the parties its decision is couched in terms of whether the lower court made the right decision. The ranges of options for an appeals court are:

Affirm: The appeals court may affirm the lower court's decree, judgment, or order, which is a declaration that the decision of the lower court was right and it will stand.
Error: If the appellate court holds that the lower court's decision was erroneous, it will reverse, modify, or remand (see below). It may rule that the mistake was a harmless error, which means that even though there was an error, it did not affect the outcome of the case enough to make a difference. Maybe a particular witness should have been allowed to testify, but the testimony would have been similar to that of a witness who did take the stand and whose testimony did not carry much weight. So the jury probably would not have found the excluded testimony very compelling. Excluding the witness was harmless error.
Modify: A final trial court decision may be affirmed by a higher court with minor modification that does not affect the substance or general findings of the decision.
Remand: A case is remanded when it is sent back to the lower court with instructions about what the lower court should do. Usually, a remand means there were errors in the trial court's decision to such an extent that the appellate court cannot correct the errors itself. The lower court must reconsider the case based on the appellate court's instructions.
Reverse: An appeals court decision to reverse a case is a ruling that the trial court should have reached the opposite conclusion. For example, a finding for the plaintiff should have been a finding that the defendant was not liable; or a finding for the defendant should have been a ruling that there was enough evidence to find the defendant liable. Unlike a remand, the appeals court has enough evidence in the record to make a determination to reverse. Sometimes, the appeals court reverses and remands at the same time. In this situation, the court has enough information to reverse the trial court's bottom line, its ultimate decision, but some questions (such as the amount of damages) still need to be worked out on remand.

In addition to these different options, appeals courts often hand down decisions that combine several different rulings. A court may reverse in part and affirm in part, or it may affirm a judgment as modified by the points described in its opinion.