Case Name: Ben Johnson v. Cincinnati Gas and Electric Co.
Court: Cincinnati Superior Court
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1907
Citations: 1 Hosea's Rep. 241
Docket Number: 
Parties: Ben Johnson v. Cincinnati Gas and Electric Co.
Judges: 
Reporter: Cincinnati Superior Court Decisions (Hosea)
Volume: 1
Pages: 241–241

Head Matter:
Ben Johnson v. Cincinnati Gas and Electric Co.
A motion for judgment on the pleadings on the ground that plaintiff failed to reply to the answer alleging contributory negligence, will be overruled when filed after trial to a jury as on issue joined upon the allegation of the answer and the evidence supporting it.
F. T. Cahill, for plaintiff.
G. H. Warrington, for defendant.

Opinion:
Hosea, J.
The motion for judgment on the pleadings under R. S., 5328, of the code is not well taken. The point is that plaintiff failed to reply to the answer of defendant setting up-contributory negligence.
The spirit and purpose of the code provisions is to require and enable parties to dispose of all purely technical questions before reaching the jury on the facts. Prescribed forms of procedure are intended to reach substantial justice- and are not to be converted into traps for the unwary. There was a proper time in the progress in the case when the-omission of a reply should have been taken advantage of, but that time had long passed when the case had been tried to a jury as though the issue had been taken upon the allegation of the answer and upon the evidence in support of it.
The objection comes too late. Lovell v. Wentworth, 39 Ohio St., 614; Woodward v. Sloan, 27 Ohio St., 592; Hudson v. Voight, 9 Circ. Dec., 35 (15 R., 391).