Girard v. Gettig

Decided January 6, 1810

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1810-01-06

IN ERROR. UPON the trial of this cause in the Common Pleas of Philadelphia county, Girard the defendant below moved for a nonsuit upon matter of law, which the court refused to order. He then produced his evidence, and in the end requested the court to charge that the plaintiff could not recover, which was also refused; and a bill of exceptions was sealed upon both points.

Cited in Bouvier (1839)’s definition of “Nonsuit”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1810-01-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently July 1885

7 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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Tilghman C. J.

¶1stated the opinion of the court upon the first exception as follows.

¶2As it seems to be growing into a custom, to take an exception, because the court below would not order a nonsuit, it may save future trouble of that kind to declare our opinion, that such exceptions cannot be sustained; because it is out of the power of the court to order a nonsuit against the consent of the plaintiff, who may refuse to enter it, and insist on taking the verdict. This is no injury to the party who wishes the court’s opinion; because he may always prepare the particular point on which the opinion is desired, and the court is bound to give it.

¶3Judgment affirmed.