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51 Ill. 170

Davis v. Kenaga

Illinois Supreme Court

Decided September 15, 1869

Illinois Supreme Court · decided 1869-09-15

Charles H. W ood, Judge, presiding. This was an action of assumpsit, brought to the court below, to recover damages for a breach of contract. The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff, and the defendants appealed. The further facts are stated in the opinion.

Relies on Sammis v. Clark · Kennedy v. Gibbs

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1869-09-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently December 1912

5 state decisions

30186918701880189019001910decided

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 Lawrence

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court:

¶2This was an action brought to recover the value of a quantity of corn loaned by the plaintiff to the defendants. That the plaintiff was entitled to recover is very clear, but there is a conflict of evidence as to the amount. We are, however, obliged, reluctantly, to reverse this judgment, because of an error in the instructions. The court, in the second instruction, told the jury they might allow interest on the amount they found due from the time the plaintiff had demanded a return of his corn, and the defendant had in fact returned the quantity, but of an inferior grade as to quality. This instruction was error. The only ground upon which interest is recoverable in this case would be that there had been “ an unreasonable and vexatious delay of payment,” within the meaning of the second section of the interest statute, but whether there had been such unreasonable and vexatious delay was a question of fact to be submitted to the jury, as held by this court in Kennedy v. Gibbs, 15 Ill. 406. It was held in Sammis v. Clark, 13 Ill. 544, Hitt v. Allen, ib. 592, Clement v. McConnell, 14 ib. 151, McCormick v. Elston, 16 ib. 205, and Aldrich v. Dunham, ib. 404, that something more than mere delay of payment was necessary to bring a case within the statute.

¶3The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.

¶4Judgment reversed.

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