What is the effect of a jury returning a second verdict in a civil case?

Appellant argues that he is entitled to a new trial due to the evident confusion underlying the jury's initial verdict. Yet when that verdict was rendered, appellant did not move for a mistrial, but instead suggested a curative instruction, which the trial court proceeded to give. Appellant may not now complain that the verdict subsequently rendered was not to his liking. True, the second verdict followed close on the heels of the first and was identical to it in substance if not in form, but on the record presented a finding of no actual damages was not unreasonable. The most plausible interpretation of the jury's precipitate return is that a consensus had been reached prior to the first vote on the inadequacy of the proof of damages, and not as appellant maintains that the jury ignored the district court's admonition that infringement of appellant's constitutional rights must be presumed. Certainly there were no adequate grounds for overriding "(t)he strong policy against any post-verdict inquiry into a juror's state of mind." United States v. Dioguardi, 492 F.2d 70, 79 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 873, 95 S.Ct. 134, 42 L.Ed.2d 112 (1974).