Hodges v. Easton/Opinion of the Court

by by John Marshall Harlan

United States Supreme Court

106 U.S. 408

Hodges  v.  Easton

'Although in the opinion of the court there was sufficient evidence in the special verdict from which the jury might have found the fact, yet they have not found it, and the court could not, upon a special verdict, intend it. The special verdict was defective in stating the evidence of the fact, instead of the fact itself. It was impossible, therefore, that a judgment could be pronounced for the plaintiff.'

But it is suggested that the final judgment, upon its face, shows that it was not based, exclusively, on answers to the special questions, and the stipulation by the parties as to the amount of freight and value of wheat; but, also, 'upon facts conceded or not disputed upon the trial.' Although this court is not informed by the record as to what those conceded and undisputed facts are, it is insisted that we should presume, in support of the judgment, that they were, in connection with the facts specially found, sufficient to justify the action of the court below. This position, it is contended, is sustained by numerous decisions of the supreme court of Wisconsin, upon the subject of general and special verdicts, as defined and regulated by the laws of that state in force when this action was tried.

It is not necessary, in this opinion, to enter upon an examination of those decisions, or to consider how far the local law controls in determining, either the essential requisites of a special verdict in the courts of the United States, or the conditions under which a judgment will be presumed to have been supported by facts other than those set out in a special verdict. The difficulty we have arises from other considerations. The record discloses that the defendants had a determination, by the jury, of a part of the facts, while other facts, upon which the final judgment was rested, were found, by the court, to have been conceded, or not disputed. If we should presume that there were no material facts considered by the court beyond those found in the answers to special questions, then, as we have seen, the facts found do not authorize the judgment. If, on the other hand, we should adjudge it to have been defendants' duty to preserve the evidence in a bill of exceptions, and that, in deference to the decisions of the state court, it should be presumed that the 'facts conceded or not disputed at the trial' were, in connection with the facts ascertained by the jury, ample to support the judgment, we then have a case at law which the jury was sworn to try, determined, as to certain material facts, by the court alone, without a waiver of jury trial as to such facts.

It was the province of the jury to pass upon the issues of fact, and it was the right of the defendants, secured by the constitution of the United States, to have them do so. That right could have been waived, but it could not be taken from them by the court. If, upon the trial, all the facts essential to recovery had been undisputed, or so conclusively established the cause of action as to have authorized the withdrawal of the case altogether from the jury, by a peremptory instruction to find for plaintiffs, it would still have been necessary that the jury make its verdict, albeit in conformity with the order of the court. The court could not, consistently with the constitutional right of trial by jury, submit a part of the facts to the jury, and, itself, determine the remainder without a waiver by the defendants of a verdict by the jury. In civil cases, other than those in equity and admiralty, and except where it is otherwise provided in bankruptcy proceedings, 'the trial of issues of fact'-that is, of all the material issues of fact-'in the circuit courts shall be by jury,' unless the parties, or their attorneys of record, stipulate in writing for the waiver of a jury. Rev. St. §§ 648-9. There is no such stipulation in this case, and there is nothing in the record from which such stipulation or waiver may be inferred. It has been often said by this court that the trial by jury is a fundamental guaranty of the rights and liberties of the people. Consequently, every reasonable presumption should be indulged against its waiver. For these reasons the judgment below must be reversed.

One other point discussed by counsel for defendants in error must be noticed. He insisted that the order of reversal, if one be made, should be accompanied by a direction to the court below to restrict the next trial to such issues as are not covered by the answers of the jury to special question. In support of this position we have been referred to several adjudications which seem to recognize the authority of the court, when setting aside a judgment, to restrict the subsequent trial to such issues as were not passed upon by the jury at the first trial. Whether this contention be sound or not we need not now determine, for the reason that the grounds upon which it rests have no existence, where, as here, the case, as to the issues triable by jury, was not submitted to the jury in the mode required by law. There is, then, no alternative but to reverse the judgment, with directions that a trial be had upon all the material issues of fact. It is so ordered.

Notes