Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

11 Ga. 203

Walker v. Walker

Supreme Court of Georgia

Decided February 15, 1852

Supreme Court of Georgia · decided 1852-02-15

Decided by-Judge Starke, April Term, 1851. At the July Term, 1850, of the Inferior Court of Upson County, sitting as a Court of Ordinary, the will of Charity Walker was propounded for record, by her executor, Nathaniel F. Walker. Benjamin Walker, an heir at law, of the said Charity, filed a caveat to the will. The Court admitted the will to record, and the caveator entered an appeal.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““When a juror has been impaneled to try a cause, and during the trial, and before he has rendered his verdict, he shall be entertained by either of the parties, at their expense, and the verdict be in favor of the party so entertaining the juror, the verdict will be set aside. ’ ’”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Sandstrom v. Oregon-Washington R. & Nav. Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1852-02-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently December 2019

2 federal appellate · 11 state decisions

6018521860187018801890190019101920193019401950196019701980199020002010decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1By the Court.

Warner, J.

¶2delivering the opinion.

¶3In this case, there was a motion for a new trial in the Court below, on two grounds: First. Because the verdict was contrary to the evidence. Second. Because one of the Jurors, impannelled to try the cause, while the same was pending, and after the testimony had been submitted, and a portion of the argument of counsel had been made, during the recess of the Court from one day until the next, went home with the caveator, remained all night at his house, and was entertained by him, at his, the caveator’s, expense, in whose favor the verdict was found by the Jury.

¶4[1.] The Court below granted a new trial on both the grounds taken in the rule. In relation to the first ground, that the verdict was contrary to the evidence, the Court, in our judgment, was clearly in error. There was much evidence on both sides, in regard to the capacity of the testatrix to make a will, and this evidence was very conflicting. The capacity of the tes*206tatrix to make 'a will, and the credibility of the witnesses, were exclusively questions for the consideration of the Jury. There is no complaint, that any rule of law was violated by the Court,, in submitting the facts to the Jury for their consideration. This question has been repeatedly adjudicated by this Court. Craft vs. Jackson, 4 Geo. Rep. 360. Amis vs. Barker, Ibid, 170. Peck vs. Land, 2 Kelly, 16. Stroud vs. Mays, 7 Geo. Rep. 269. Flournoy vs. Newton, 8 Geo. Rep. 306.

¶5[2.] In our judgment, the new trial-was properly granted by the Court below, on the ground that the Juror was entertained, at the expense of the-caveator, as stated in the record.

¶6It is true, the affidavit of the Juror was produced, in which he-states that his verdict was not influenced by the kindness and hospitality of the caveator. But we-place our judgment on the. principle of the Common Law, which we consider a safe and salutary rule. When a Juror has'- been impannelled to try a cause, and during the trial, and before he has rendered his verdict, he shall be entertained, by either of the parties, at their expense, and the verdict be in favor of the party so entertaining the Juror, the verdict will be set aside. Graham on New Trials, 96, 97, 98, and cases there cited. This rule is indispensably necessary to preserve the purity and integrity of Jury trials in ourCourts, and cannot be too- strictly' enforced'.

¶7Let the judgment of the Court' below’, granting a new trial, upon the last ground considered- and adjudged by this Court, be affirmed.

/11/ga/203 · .json · Public domain