Koon v. Insurance Company/Opinion of the Court

by Morrison Waite

United States Supreme Court

104 U.S. 106

Koon  v.  Insurance Company

The stipulation 'that the jury might, when they had agreed on their verdict, if the court should not then be in session, sign and seal the same, and deliver the same to the officer in charge and disperse,' was equivalent to an agreement by both parties, on the retirement of the jury, that the court might, when the sealed verdict was handed in by the officer, open it in the absence of the jury and reduce it to proper form, if necessary. The stipulation was also a waiver of the right to poll the jury if they should not be in court.

The issue to be tried was on a plea of nil debet. This admitted the execution of the bond, and required the jury only to find the amount due. If anything was found to be due, the law fixed the form of the verdict and judgment. The jury found there was $7,500 due on the debt and one cent damages for the detention. That finding, reduced to proper form, was in favor of the plaintiff for the penalty of the bond, to be discharged on payment of $7,500. All the court did was to enter the verdict in that form. In doing so it only gave legal effect to what the jury unmistakably found. This was allowable, both under sect. 954 of the Revised Statutes and the Practice Act of Illinois.

Judgment affirmed.

Notes