Fulbright v. Phipps
Decision Date | 27 February 1928 |
Docket Number | 235 |
Citation | 3 S.W.2d 49,176 Ark. 356 |
Parties | FULBRIGHT v. PHIPPS |
Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Appeal from Washington Circuit Court; J. S. Maples, Judge; reversed.
J. W Nance and J. W. Grabiel, for appellant.
H. L Pearson and J. Wythe Walker, for appellee.
Appellee brought suit against the administratrix of the estate of Jay Fulbright, deceased, upon a demand for alleged unpaid salary amounting to $ 10,000, and offered testimony tending to show that the demand was just, and that he was entitled to receive the amount sued for.
Testimony was offered by the defendant administratrix to the effect that nothing was due appellee, and that the demand upon which he sued had been compromised and settled. Had the verdict been for the defendant we would be required to hold that the testimony was ample to sustain the finding.
After the jury had had the case under consideration for some time a report was made to the court that the jury was unable to agree.
The court required the jury to further consider the case, and a verdict was finally returned for the plaintiff for the sum of $ 5,000, one-half the amount sued for, thus indicating that a compromise verdict had been reached, as the verdict should consistently have been for $ 10,000 or for nothing.
Both parties filed motions for a new trial, and both motions were overruled. Appellee filed a supplementary motion praying the court to render judgment for $ 10,000 notwithstanding the verdict, and that motion was sustained, and judgment was rendered for that amount, and this appeal has been duly prosecuted from that judgment.
We do not review the testimony, for, as has been said, it was sharply conflicting, and is legally sufficient to support a verdict for $ 10,000 in favor of the plaintiff or one in favor of the defendant. There appears to be no assignment of error requiring discussion except the action of the court in rendering judgment for $ 10,000 notwithstanding the jury had returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for only $ 5,000.
The case of Jackson v. Carter, 169 Ark. 1154, 278 S.W. 32, was a suit upon three notes which had been executed in payment of the purchase price of an automobile. The defendant denied liability upon the notes on the ground that the automobile had been stolen, and there was a verdict and judgment in his favor. Upon the appeal to this court it was held that the defendant had failed to prove that the automobile had been stolen, and that the proof was insufficient to show that the consideration for the notes had failed. It was therefore held that, as the undisputed testimony showed that plaintiff was entitled to a judgment for the amount of the notes, judgment should be rendered here for the plaintiff, notwithstanding a verdict had been returned in favor of the defendant, and this was done. It was there said, however:
It is apparent that neither section of the statute quoted in the case cited above is applicable to the facts in this case. Here the answer denied any liability, and the testimony on behalf of the defendant would have sustained that finding. The plaintiff was therefore not entitled to a judgment under the pleadings nor under the undisputed proof. Ryan v....
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Wawak v. Stewart
...itemized claims. In any event recovery upon the cross appeal would have to be denied under the rule established in Fulbright v. Phipps, 176 Ark. 356, 3 S.W.2d 49 (1928), and the cases that have followed it, holding that the verdict need not correspond in amount to the proof adduced by eithe......
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Trammell v. State
... ... we think it was the judgment must be affirmed so far as the ... sufficiency of the testimony is concerned. Fulbright ... v. Phipps, 176 Ark. 356, 3 S.W.2d 49; Griffin ... Grocery Co. v. Thaxton, 178 Ark. 736, 11 S.W.2d ... 473; Elm Springs State Bank v. Bradley, ... ...
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Elm Springs State Bank v. Bradley
... ... another inconsistent verdict will be returned by the jury. If ... so, the case of Fulbright v. Phipps, 176 ... Ark. 356, 3 S.W.2d 49, defines the practice which the trial ... court should follow ... It has ... been ... ...
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Rector v. State, CR
...damages only, because the possibility of a compromise in the jury room links the two issues inseparably together. See Fulbright v. Phipps, 176 Ark. 356, 3 S.W.2d 49 (1928); Manzo v. Boulet, 220 Ark. 106, 246 S.W.2d 126 (1952). No similar problem seems even to have arisen in our criminal Eve......