Bell v. Zelmer

42 N.W. 606, 75 Mich. 66, 1889 Mich. LEXIS 1017
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJune 7, 1889
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 42 N.W. 606 (Bell v. Zelmer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bell v. Zelmer, 42 N.W. 606, 75 Mich. 66, 1889 Mich. LEXIS 1017 (Mich. 1889).

Opinion

Morse, J.

On the thirtieth day of December, 1885, the defendant August Zelmer was a saloon-keeper in the city of Ionia. Schmoltz and Kennedy were sureties on his bond, the penal sura of which was $3,000.

On that day John Bell, a farmer living in the township of Odessa, in Ionia county, came from his home to the city of Ionia with a team of horses and a buggy.

While there he met a neighbor, Charles McBoberts, with whom he visited several places and drank liquor. About ■dark he started for home, McBoberts riding with him. They had some difficulty on the road, arising .probably from the effect of the liquor they bad drank. Finally Bell ordered McBoberts out of his buggy. McBoberts got out and Bell drove on. The next morning Bell’s team was discovered near his home. Bell was hanging out of the buggy, dead, his feet being caught in the seat of the buggy, his head touching the ground. It appeared that the team had come some distance with Bell hanging in this way, his head dragging upon the ground.

The plaintiff, his widow,, brought suit March 2é, 1886, against Zelmer and his bondsmen under the statute (Act No. 259, Laws of 1881, as amended by Act No. 191, Laws of 1883), claiming that Zelmer sold her husband liquor, which ■contributed to the intoxication that caused his death.

It appears from the record that the first trial of the cause resulted in a verdict for plaintiff, which was afterwards set aside by the circuit judge upon a motion for a new trial.

The cause came on again to be tried in the Ionia circuit [68]*68before a jury, on the nineteenth day of December, 188?. Upon the swearing of the first witness, the plaintiff, the counsel for the defendants objected to any testimony being introduced in the case tending to show any liability against the defendants, or any liability against the sureties in the bond, for the following reasons:

“1. Because neither the common law nor statute gives the right of action for the death of a human being under the circumstances in the declaration counted on.
“ 2. There is no cause of action alleged against the principal in the bond, for the reason that there is no wrong alleged out of which the injury complained of grew or originated. There is no allegation of an illegal sale of liquor, nor that the sale made was not lawful.
“ 3. There is no liability against the sureties, Schmoltz and Kennedy, alleged in the declaration, because—
“ a — The form of the declaration is in trespass on the case.
“ i>_The sureties are alleged to be guilty of no wrong save only the signing of the bond, which is not unlawful.
c — Because there is no breach of the conditions of the bond alleged.”

This objection was overruled, and the case proceeded.

The only person who gave any evidence tending to show that the husband of plaintiff drank or procured any liquor at-the saloon of Zelmer was Charles McRoberts, who, when first placed upon the stand as a witness for the plaintiff, testified as follows:

“I reside in Odessa, where I have lived for sixteen years. I am a farmer. Knew John Bell in his life-time. My farm, joins the one he lived on in ’85, and where his family now live.
“I was here in Ionia with John Bell on the day previous-to his death, in December, ’ 85. I could not say how much I was in his company on that day. I think I met him about 13 o’clock, first. I knew of his drinking liquor in Ionia that day. I know the defendant August Zelmer.
“ Q, While in Ionia on that day, did you go into Zelmer’s place of business?
“A. That I am not capable of saying. I do not think I did.
“ Q. Did you (estifyin this case once before?
[69]*69“A. Tes, sir.
Q. Do you remember how you testified then ?
“A. Yes, sir; I do. I think, sir, I was mistaken at that time. I think I was mistaken of the place.
“ Q. Do you know what place of business Zelmer kept at that time?
. “A. Yes, sir; I do. He kept a saloon.”

He was then examined and cross-examined for a long time by the attorneys for the plaintiff, first one and then the other taking the witness and endeavoring to get from him a positive statement that he and Bell drank in Zelmer’s saloon that day, and an admission that he so positively testified on the first trial. The witness hesitated some, and at times was inclined to be evasive in his answers, but he insisted that he was not positive before the first trial, and only meant to testify to the best of his recollection. He admitted that, before the first trial, he pointed out to Mr. Clute, one of plaintiff’s attorneys, Zelmer’s saloon as one of the places where he thought he got liquor with Bell. He claimed that he was never certain about it, as he had been drinking a good deal on the thirtieth of December, 1885, and that he had been thinking of the matter since, and had come to the conclusion that he was mistaken.

On being asked by Mr. Clute, “ Do you know you are mistaken?” he answered:

“No, sir; I don’t know positively whether I am mistaken or not. My memory tells me that I might be mistaken, and— and I think that I am mistaken, but — ”
Mr. Blanchard [counsel for plaintiff]. I would like to ask you what saloon it was, then.
The Court. Do you know what saloon you were in that day that is on the south side of the street?
“A. No, sir; not positive.”

It appeared from the testimony of the witness that before the second trial began he went voluntarily to the office of Mr. Clute, plaintiff’s counsel, who planted the suit, and told him that he could not swear that he and Bell got liquor in Zel-' mer’s place, as he had become convinced that he was mis[70]*70taken in naming his saloon as one of the places where liquor was obtained.

After the witness had been exhausted by the attorneys on both sides, the court asked him:

“Witness, what do you say now as to whether you were-in Zelmer’s with Bell, when Bell was there, December 30, 1885?
A. I thought at the time that that was the saloon that I was in.
The Court. I asked you what do you say now?
“A. Well, I say that I think I was mistaken.”

The witness stated that in the last saloon which he and Bell went into that day Mr. Olmstead, the keeper of a feed-stable, was with him, and drank with them, and that Olmstead only went to one saloon with them that day, and oinly once into that one.

Olmstead, being sworn, testified that he remembered going, in December, 1885, with the witness McRoberts to Zelmer’s saloon to get a drink of liquor, but he thinks no one went with them; that he was not personally acquainted with Mr. Bell.

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Bluebook (online)
42 N.W. 606, 75 Mich. 66, 1889 Mich. LEXIS 1017, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bell-v-zelmer-mich-1889.