Denison v. Brown
Denison v. Brown
Opinion of the Court
The suit is to cancel two notes, upon the ground of false and fraudulent representations inducing the purchase of a half interest in a garage. Special issues were submitted, to the jury. According to a bill of exception, upon which error is predicated by appellant, the jury, after retiring to consider their verdict, came into court, and the foreman made the statement to the court that they had agreed upon an answer to all the questions submitted to them hut one, and that they could not agree upon the finding to be made in respect to that one question. The court thereupon, it appears, looked over the answers as written down by the jury, and directed the foreman to sign the verdict as it was answered, which he did. After having the clerk to read aloud the verdict as signed, the court then asked the jury if that was their verdict; and, all of them answering that it was, the court received the verdict and discharged the jury. It appears from the record that there was disagreement, in proportional numbers, between the jurors as to the answer to be made to the question submitted and unanswered. The question asked, and which the jury failed through disagreement to answer, was:
“No. 3. Would plaintiff F. R. Denison have made the trade in question, and would the notes mentioned in the pleadings have been executed, if the representations set out in paragraph 3 of the plaintiff’s original petition had not been made?”
The court erred in not granting a new trial for the error, and the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded for another trial as to the defendant John L. Brown in respect to the petition and prayer for damages. It is concluded, though, that, as the evidence failed to establish that defendant Shirley was not an innocent purchaser for value of the note before maturity, the court should have peremptorily instructed a verdict in his favor, and for that reason the judgment as to him should not be disturbed, but affirmed, and it is accordingly so ordered.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- DENISON Et Al. v. BROWN Et Al.
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published