Prather-Wolfe Mercantile Co. v. Carnes
Prather-Wolfe Mercantile Co. v. Carnes
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Defendant has filed a petition for rehearing, on the ground the court did not discuss specifically the subject of error committed by the district court in failing to instruct the jury as requested on the subject of burden of proof. In the petition for rehearing it is said:
“We cannot believe that this court intends to hold that the failure to give a requested instruction on burden of proof cannot be properly considered by a court on motion for a new trial without a presentation of a transcript of the evidence.” ■
As shown in the original opinion, the issue in the case was whether a wife had authority to sign her husband’s name to a check. Defendant requested an instruction which reads:
“You are instructed that the burden of proof is upon the plaintiff to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant, John Carnes, signed the instrument sued on, or that he authorized some other person to sign his name to such instrument.”
The court wrote on the margin of this instruction the word “Covered,” and gave the following instruction:
“If you find and believe from the evidence by a preponderance thereof that Mrs. John Carnes was given authority specifically or generally by her husband to sign the check in controversy in his name and for him, and that she did so sign and write such check, and did deliver such check to Frank Carnes by the direction or authority and approval of John Carnes, and that the check shortly thereafter passed by open indorsement of Frank Carnes into the hands of plaintiff for value and without notice of any defense thereto, if any there were, then your verdict should be for the plaintiff and against John Carnes for $500, with 6 per cent interest from August 5 to date.”
The petition for rehearing is denied.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.