Bozeman v. Gilbert

Decided January 15, 1840

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1840-01-15

Writ of error to the County Court of Lowndes County. COVENANT to recover damages for a breach of warranty in the salé of a jack-ass. No plea was pleaded, but the cause was tried by a jury as on an issue.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“"A mere agreement to decide a controversy by arbitration cannot be enforced at law, or in equity, because no one can effectually waive his right to have his suits determined at the proper Courts provided by the laws of his country." (Emphasis added.) 1 Ala. at 91”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including 387 So. 2d 140 - Wells v. Mobile County Bd. of Realtors, Inc., 732 So. 2d 994 - Southern Energy Homes, Inc. v. Lee

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1840-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 19 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2013

18 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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PER CURIAM.

¶1— The County Court' was mistaken when It considered the agreement to refer to arbitration, as a bar to the action.

¶2A mere agreement to decide a controversy by arbitration cannot be enforced at law, or in equity, because no one can effectually waive his right to have his suits determined at the proper Courts provided by the laws of his country.

¶3The usual course to enforce such stipulations formerly, was to enter into bond with sufficient penally; but it may be doubted whether this mode would be effectual at the present day, for it is not easy to ascertain what injury can accrue to a party by the refusal of his adversary, to comply with such engagement.

¶4However the remedy may be, the question now presented, was settled in "the case of Stone v. Dennis, (3 Porter 231) and that decision is entirely satisfactory to the present Court.

¶5For the error in the instructions given to the jury, the judgment of the County Court is reversed, and the cause remanded.