Cases argued and decided in the Supreme Court of Texas, during the latter part of the Tyler term, 1874, and the first part of the Galveston term, 1875. Volume 42. Page: 475
viii, 704 p. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this book.
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1875.] WARREN V. WALLIS, LANDES & CO. 475
Opinion of the Court.
The charge asked by appellant on the trial, after the cause
was remanded, was not such a charge as the court was authorized
to give. The statute provides, that the judge shall not
in any case, civil or criminal, charge or comment on the weight
of evidence. He shall so frame hisecharge as to submit questions
of fact solely to the decision of the jury, deciding on
and instructing them as to the law arising on the facts, distinctly
separating questions of law from questions of fact. (1
Paschal's Digest, Article 1464.)
The discussion of the evidence, in the opinion of the Supreme
Court, and the reasons given for the judgment, were
not questions for the consideration of the jury on the subsequent
trial. A decision, says Kent, on a point of law, in any
given case, must be followed so long as it stands unreversed,
unless it can le shown that the law was misunderstood or misapplied
in that case. "The expression of every judge must
" also be taken with reference to the case on which he decides;
" we must look to the principle of the decision, and not to the
" manner in which the case is argued upon the bench, other"wise
the law will be thrown into extreme confusion."
(Kent's Comm., vol. 1, p. 478.) The force of the judgment, as
Cooley remarks, does not depend upon the reasons given
therefor, or upon the circumstances that any were or were not
given. (Cooley's Constitutional Lim., 49.)
In the case of Cohen v. The State of Virginia, 6 Wht.
Rep., 399, Chief-Justice Marshall said: " It is a maxim not to
be disregarded, that general expressions in every opinion
" are to be taken in connection with the case in which those
"expressions are used. If they go beyond the case, they may
" be respected, but ought not to control the judgment in a
" subsequent suit, when the very point is presented for decis"
ion."
The case at bar was not a subsequent suit, but a subsequent
trial of the same suit. The principles and maxims applied to
the former are applicable to the latter, in so far as relates to
the force of the judgment and the reasons given therefor. The
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Texas. Supreme Court. Cases argued and decided in the Supreme Court of Texas, during the latter part of the Tyler term, 1874, and the first part of the Galveston term, 1875. Volume 42., book, 1881; St. Louis, Mo.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth28531/m1/483/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .