Hasse v. Lemp

• Decision Date: 31 March 1858
• Citation: 26 Mo. 394
• Parties: HASSE, Respondent, v. LEMP, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

26 Mo. 394

HASSE, Respondent,

v.LEMP, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1858.

1. Instructions should not be given to the jury unless warranted by the evidence.

Appeal from St. Louis Land Court.

It is deemed unnecessary to set forth the facts more fully than they appear in the opinion of the court.

Kribben, for appellant.

Holmes and Romyn, for respondent.

RICHARDSON, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The only matter of which the appellant complains is that the court refused to give his third and fourth instructions. The idea of speculative damages was excluded from the consideration of the jury by the third instruction given for the plaintiff and the second given at the instance of the defendant. These instructions limited the plaintiff's right of recovery to the actual injury he had sustained by the defendant's trespass, and contained the same proposition of law embraced in the defendant's third instruction. When a principle of law applicable to a case is once distinctly stated there is no necessity or propriety in repeating it. There was nothing in the evidence to warrant the fourth instruction asked by the defendant.

The other judges concurring, the judgment will be affirmed.