Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

201 Mo. 527

Coutant v. Snow

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided March 5, 1907

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1907-03-05

Louis City Circuit Court . — Hon. Jesse A. McDonald, Judge. The trial court erred in setting aside the nonsuit for the reason that plaintiff did not use due diligence in preparing the case for trial. Howell v. Howell, 37 Mo. 124. The appellate court will not interfere with the discretion of the trial court in setting aside the nonsuit.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1907-03-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently December 1930

3 state decisions

101907191019201930decided

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 →

GrANTT, J.

¶1This is an appeal from an order of the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, setting aside an involuntary nonsuit which plaintiff had suffered at the March term, 1903, of the said court. The action is for damages occasioned by the death of plaintiff’s hus*528band, by the burning of the buildings Nos. 2700 and 2702 Olive street in St. Louis on the 9th day of February, 1902.

¶2The petition is in all respects, save and except the party plaintiff, and her deceased husband, exactly like that in Yall v. Snow, ante, p. 511, the opinion in which case has been handed down to-day. The answer is practically the same in both cases. The same principles of law must govern in each. Outside of the questions considered and decided in Yall v. Snow, is the propriety of the circuit court’s action in setting aside the nonsuit, and reinstating the case. This was done upon the ground of surprise, supported by the affidavit of plaintiff’s counsel, and was a matter within the wise discretion of the circuit court. "We find nothing indicating an abuse of the discretion of that court and for the reasons assigned in Yall v. Snow, the judgment of the circuit court in setting aside the nonsuit and reinstating the cause is affirmed.

Burgess, P. J., and Fox, J., concur.
/201/mo/527 · .json · Public domain