Adams v. Champion
| Decision Date | 26 January 1875 |
| Citation | 31 Mich. 233 |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
| Parties | Benjamin K. Adams and another v. James D. Champion and another |
Heard January 22, 1875
Case made from Newaygo Circuit.
Judgment set aside, and another trial ordered, without costs by either party against the other.
Thompson Reeves & Pratt and D. Darwin Hughes, for plaintiffs.
J. A Fairfield, W. L. Stoughton and L. D. Norris, for defendants.
Christiancy, J., did not sit in this case.
Since the hearing, we have considered whether we can safely and properly attempt a revision of the proceedings in this case upon the incongruous and irregular record now before us, and our conclusion is that we cannot, and that the case must go back for a retrial.
The action was replevin for a portable saw-mill, and it was heard by the court without a jury. A general judgment for the value of the property was given in favor of the defendants. Several questions were raised below in regard to evidence, and questions are made here upon the effect and propriety of findings of fact, and the validity of legal conclusions.
The record is called, and seems to have been meant for, a case made after judgment, but it would be very difficult to give it a precise definition. We find brought together the pleadings, a mass of evidence, documentary and verbal, and on the part of the plaintiffs thirty-nine, and on the part of the defendants sixteen such special questions as they chose to submit to the judge, together with his answers thereto, and succeeding this matter the general judgment for the defendant is set out. No regular general finding of the facts in the case appears. We are compelled, however, to look at these answers of the judge, to the particular questions submitted to him, as decisions upon the specific matters of fact covered by the questions. In doing so, we must not be understood as giving any sanction whatever to such mode of finding facts under our statute. It is not the authorized and regular way. But the matter is in the record, and it thence appears that the judge has actually found some facts, has really ascertained and set forth a part of the facts proved by the evidence.
We have, then, a general judgment and a finding of part of the facts. We have not the facts on which the judgment was given because a portion are not embraced by the record. These findings by the court are, under our statute, in their form, if properly constructed, and in their nature and operation, substantially a special verdict. And in the one case as in the other, all the material facts established should appear in the finding, and in a shape to enable the court to award the judgment required by the law to be given in the case. The finding here is incomplete and imperfect, and this court has no power to supply the...
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