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1 Mo. 401

Fenwick v. Logan

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided November 15, 1823

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1823-11-15

<p>'The jury must find all that is put in issue. So where in an action of trespass, not guilty, and a pica of justification were pleaded, and the jury found the defendant guilty, without saying any thing as to the’ last plea — held, that the verdict should, have been set aside, and judgment arrested.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1823-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently April 1938

6 state decisions

20182318301840185018601870188018901900191019201930decided

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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M’Girk, C. J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court.

¶2This was an action of trespass for assault and battery. Two pleas were pleaded; First, the general issue ? and second, a justification1 of son assault demesne. A jury was empannelled to try the issues, and they returned a verdict of guilty, generally, without saying any thing about-the justification. A motion was made to arrest the judgment, and set aside the verdict,- on the ground that there was no finding on the special plea; and this motion was overruled, and judgment for the plaintiff. The cause is brought here by writ of error, and the want of a finding on the special plea assigned for error. The.law is, that the verdict must find all in issue, otherwise it is bad. The general issue, only, pqts in question the fact of the assault and battery j, and the special plea puts in issue the excuse allowed by law for doing the act y and. if the justification is found for the defendant, he, though he did the act, is to be dis- <> *284charged. Here, only the fact of doing the act was inquired into ; and his discharge, or justification therefor, is not inquired into.

¶3The judgment is, therefore, erroneous, and is reversed. The cause is remanded to the Circuit Court, to try both issues. The costs of this writ of error are to he paid by defendant in error.

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