Foust v. Yielding

Decided January 15, 1856

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1856-01-15

[ACTION ON OPEN ACCOUNT — APPEAR PROM JUSTICE’S COURT.] 1. Charge erroneous, because invading province of jury. — A charge which takes from 'the jury the right to determine the truth of the evidence, and to ascertain the facts, invades their province, and is therefore erroneous; as where, under the plea of set-oif, it asserts without hypothesis “ that the defendant is entitled to recover” the amount of the set-off claimed. 2. Reversal for erro7ieons charge. — -An erroneous charge is a reversible error, unless the record clearly shows that it was harmless.

Relies on Phillips v. McGrew

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1856-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently April 1945

3 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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RICE, C. J.

¶1The charge of the court below invaded thg province of the jury. It took from them their right to determine the truth of the evidence, and to ascertain the facts. Phillips v. McGrow, 13 Ala. 255; Huff v. Cox, 2 ib. 310; Yarborough v. Jones, 2 ib. 524.

¶2Without considering the other questions raised upon the record, we reverse the judgment, and remand the cause, upon the single ground, that the charge of the court was an invasion of the right of the jury, and that this error is not clearly shown by the record to have been harmless.