James v. Hood

142 P. 162, 19 N.M. 234
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 16, 1914
DocketNo. 1659
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 142 P. 162 (James v. Hood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
James v. Hood, 142 P. 162, 19 N.M. 234 (N.M. 1914).

Opinion

OPINION.

ROBERTS, C. J.

Appellant instituted this action to recover from appellee an alleged balance of $1,800, interest and attorneys’ fees claimed to be due on a promissory note, executed and delivered to him by appellee. Appellee filed an answer, setting up a lack of consideration .as to $1,375.43 of tlie indebtedness represented by the note, and also set up a counter claim against the appellant for approximately $16,000, made up of various items. 'One of these items, amounting to $1,172.97, was based upon a claim that appellant had delivered to appellee 6,400 head of'sheep on a “partido” contract, together with certain lands, described in the contract only as the Corrumpa 'Sheep Company Lands, and, that appellant, in violation ■of the contract, had appropriated to his own use a portion of said lands and six lakes of water thereon. The remainder of the counter-claim was based upon twelve or thirteen different items, principally growing out of the transactions between the parties under the “partido” contract. The case was tried to a jury, and a verdict for appellee in the sum of $400.00 was returned. A motion .for new trial was filed and overruled, and appellant appealed.

1 2 His first two assignments of error are addressed to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict. Appellant contends that there is no substantial evidence to support the verdict and that the record discloses it was returned through prejudice on the part of the jury. There was a sharp conflict in the evidence, and, from the record before us, it seemingly preponderated in appellant’s favor. However, under the well established rule, neither the verdict of the jury nor the findings of a trial court will be disturbed in the appellate court, when they are supported by any substantial evidence. (Goldenberg vs. Law, 17 N. M. 546.) We cannot weigh conflicting evidence, and will only examine it-for the purpose of determining whether there was substantial evidence, which it believed by the jury warranted the verdict. In this court, we have only the written transcript of the evidence before us, and, therefore, do not have the advantage nor opportunity of seeing the witnesses, hearing them testify,, observing their manner and demeanor on the witness stand, and the many other indescribable aids in sifting-out truth from falsehood, possessed by the jury and the trial judge. Here the verdict not only has the approval of the jury, but the trial court has, after carefully considering all the evidence, with every opportunity which the jury had, of0determining its weight and credence, given its approval to the same. The weight of the evidence-may properly be considered by the trial judge in passing-on the motion for a new trial, where it is properly called to his attention, and, if his judgment tells him that the-verdict is wrong, that the jury have erred, either through mistake, prejudice or other cause, and-have found against the fair preponderance of the evidence, he should not hesitate to set it aside, and remand the question to another jury. The trial judge is more than a mere moderator, passing upon the admissibility of evidence, and instructing the jury as to the law of the case. He, as well as the jury, must approve of the verdict. The object of trials-in the courts is to mete out justice to litigants, and unless, substantial justice is meted out by the verdict of the jury, the judge should not permit the verdict to stand. We do not mean to say that he should substitute his judgment for the judgment of the jury, and in all cases where-he might have reached a different conclusion upon the-evidence, that he should grant a new trial; but where it clearly appears that the jury have failed to respond truly to the real merits of the controversy, and justice-has not been done, he should unhesitatingly set the verdict aside. This has always been the guide, for trial judges, both in this country and England. In an early English case, (Bright vs. Eynon, 1 Burr. 390, 97 Eng. Reprint, 365) Lord Mansfield discussed the question as to when a new trial should be granted on the weight of the evidence, and says:

“And the rule laid down by Lord Parker, in the case of the Queen against the Corporation of Helston II., 12 Ann. B. B. seems to be the best general rule that can be-laid down upon this subject, viz: ‘Doing justice to the party/ or in other words ‘attaining the justice of the case/ ’’ See also the case of Wood vs. Gunston, Style 446, a case decided in 1655.

In the case of Kansas Pacific R. Co. vs. Kunkle, 17 Kans. 172, Justice Brewer, speaking of the functions of the trial court, as distinguished from the court of last resort, said:

“The functions of the two are widely dissimilar. The one has the same opportunity as the jury for forming a just estimate of the credence to be placed in the various witnesses, and if it appears to him that the jury have found against the weight of the evidence it is his imperative duty to set the verdict aside. We do not mean that he is to substitute his own judgment in all cases for the judgment of the jury, for it is their province to settle questions of fact; and when the evidence is nearly balanced, or is such that different minds would naturally and fairly - come to different conclusions thereon, he has no right to disturb the-findings of the jury, although his own judgment might incline him the other way. In other words, the finding of the jury is to be upheld by him as against any mere doubts of its correctness. But when IIIS JUDGMENT tells him that it is wrong, that whether from mistake, or prejudice, or other cause, the jury have erred, and found against the fair preponderance of the evidence, then no duty is more imperative than that of setting aside the verdict, and remanding the question to another jury.”

The ca§es discussing the rule will be found collected in case notes, accompanying the cases of Clark vs. Great Northern R. Co., 2 Am. & Eng. Ann. Cases, 760, and McMahon vs. Rhode Island Co. Ann. Cas. 1912 D. 1223. The rule stated is supported by practically all the reported cases.

The verdict is supported by substantial evidence, and having been approved by the trial court, it will not be disturbed here, although as the facts appear in the transcript of the evidence, we might have reached a different conclusion.

Assignment .number three is that the court erred in permitting the witness, Charles Carter, to testify that the lands of the Corrumpa Sheep Company lie south of the Colorado & Southern Tracks, in that such testimony was hearsay, secondary, irrelevant and immaterial. There is no merit in this assignment for three reasons. First; the objection interposed was upon other grounds; Second, no exception ivas taken to the overruling of the objection; and, third, it did not appear at the time the question was answered, that the witness was giving hearsay testimony; such fact appearing only upon cross-examination, at which time appellant failed to move to strike out the answer, or to in any manner indicate that he desired its withdrawal from the consideration of the jury.

3 Objections not made in the court below to a question propounded to a witness will not be considered on appeal. A. T. & S. F. Ry. Co. vs. Rogers, 16 N. M. 120; 113 Pac. 805.

4 A ruling on the admissibility of evidence, to which no exception has been taken, will not be considered on appeal.

5

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Bluebook (online)
142 P. 162, 19 N.M. 234, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/james-v-hood-nm-1914.