Hicks v. Emerson-Brantingham Implement Co.
Hicks v. Emerson-Brantingham Implement Co.
Opinion of the Court
On March 26, 1921, in this case at the present term! of court an opinion was delivered, one paragraph of which, through, inadvertence, contains an erroneous statement of the law with reference to a question of procedure arising in the trial court. This error in no way affects the disposition made of the case, but is calculated to mislead or confuse those who may hereafter refer to the opinion. We therefore deem it advisable upon our own motion to withdraw that opinion and eliminate the unsatisfactory feature, substituting the following as the opinion of the court:
This suit was instituted ■ by appellee against appellant to recover $1,000, alleg- *349 eel to be due appellee for money advanced under the provisions of a written assignment of an interest in a life insurance policy existing upon the life of W. T. Hicks, the husband of appellant. The assignment was jointly executed by appellant and her husband, W. T. Hicks. W. T. Hicks thereafter died, and the insurance policy, being in force at the date of his death, became due and payable when he died. The insurance company paid into court the sum involved here, and the cause was tried as between appellant and appellee before the court and a jury.
At the conclusion of appellee’s evidence appellant offered no proof, and the court peremptorily instructed the jury to return a verdict for appellee against appellant for $1,000. From a judgment entered upon the verdict returned in conformity with this special instruction, appellant has appealed.
‘■‘The rule that the pleader must state the facts on which he intends to rely, as constituting his cause of action or ground of defense, is universal in its application in our pleadings, with the single exception, of the plea of ‘not guilty,’ in the action of trespass to try title. But, although a statement of the facts is indispensable, it is not necessary to state such circumstances as constitute merely the evidence of those facts. The simple allegation of the fact is sufficient, without detailing a variety of minute circumstances which merely conduce to prove the truth of it. To require all those circumstances which constitute but the evidence of facts to be stated would lead to inconvenient detail and intolerable prolixity in pleading; and it would be to require that which must often be impracticable, and, if attempted, hazardous to the rights of the party, for it is not always possible for the pleader to know in advance precisely what his evidence will be, and a variance might be fatal to his cause. Hence the necessity of adhering- to the rule that what is merely the evidence of facts need not be stated.”
AVe find no reversible error in the record, and the judgment is affirmed.
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Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.