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35 Ill. 416

Cowan v. Smith

Illinois Supreme Court

Decided April 15, 1864

Illinois Supreme Court · decided 1864-04-15

Samuel L. Richmond, Judge, presiding. This was an action of assumpsit instituted in the court below by Ephraim Smith against Walter Cowan. A trial resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff. The defendant, thereupon, moved for a new trial, upon the ground of the absence of a material witness, whose attendance he was endeavoring to procure at the time the trial came on. In support of his motion the defendant presented his own affidavit alone.

Relies on Cummins v. Walden · Gibson v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1864-04-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently February 1903

6 state decisions

3018641870188018901900decided

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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Mr. Justice Beckwith

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court:

¶2After a verdict against the defendant, he moved for a new trial on the ground of the absence of a material witness. The overruling of this motion is now assigned as error. A motion for a new trial, founded on the absence of a material witness, or upon newly discovered testimony, should be supported by the affidavits of the witnesses by whom it is proposed to prove the facts relied upon; or, some excuse should be shown for not obtaining them. Cummins v. Waldren, 4 Blackf. 307; Denn v. Morrell, 1 Hall S. C. 382; Gibson v. The State, 9 Ind. 264; 1 Graham & Waterm. on New Trials, 210; 3 id. 1067, et seq. The motion in the present case was made solely upon the appellant’s affidavit, and it states no excuse for not procuring the affidavit of the witness. In this respect it was clearly insufficient; and the motion for a new trial made thereon was properly overruled.

¶3The judgment of the court below is, therefore, affirmed.

¶4Judgment affirmed.

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