Price v. Evans

• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: BLISS
• Citation: Price v. Evans, 49 Mo. 396 (Mo. 1872)
• Decision Date: 29 February 1872
• Parties: THOMAS D. PRICE AND HENRY A. SHERRILL, Plaintiffs in Error, v. W. S. EVANS AND T. D. EVANS, Defendants in Error.

49 Mo. 396

THOMAS D. PRICE AND HENRY A. SHERRILL, Plaintiffs in Error,

v.W. S. EVANS AND T. D. EVANS, Defendants in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

February Term, 1872.

Error to Linn Court of Common Pleas.

Henry Lander and G. W. Easley, for plaintiffs in error.

G. D. Burgess and C. H. Mansur, for defendants in error.

BLISS, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The petition contained two counts, one for $700 paid by plaintiffs as sureties for defendants, and one for a balance of account at their bank of $346. The answer averred payment of the note and a deposit to the plaintiffs' credit of $1,200, for which defendants, after deducting the $346, asked judgment. The jury found for defendants on the first count, and gave the plaintiffs a verdict of $380 upon the second. The instructions were correct, and we are asked to grant a new trial because there was no evidence to sustain the verdict upon the first count. There is reason to believe that the verdict was wrong, and I think the trial court would have been justified in giving a new trial. Notwithstanding trial courts may thus act when they see the jury has been misled, yet if they refuse to do so, it is not error unless the preponderance of evidence against the verdict is so strong as to raise a presumption of prejudice, corruption, or gross ignorance on the part of the jury. Such has...