Case Name: MENDENHALL et al. v. HAVEN & COMPANY
Court: Ohio Circuit Court
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1899-01
Citations: 19 Ohio C.C. 685
Docket Number: 
Parties: MENDENHALL et al. v. HAVEN & COMPANY.
Judges: Before Smith, Swing and Gillen, JJ.
Reporter: Reports of cases argued and determined in the circuit courts of Ohio
Volume: 19
Pages: 685–686

Head Matter:
(First Circuit — Hamilton Co., Circuit Court
Court — Jan. Term, 1899.)
Before Smith, Swing and Gillen, JJ.
MENDENHALL et al. v. HAVEN & COMPANY.
After evidence heard on both sides, court can not direct verdict—
Where evidence has been exhibited by both parties, the trial court has no right to say to the jury that the plaintiffs are entitled to recover, and the judgment below will be reversed on that account, although the reviewing court may be satisfied from the facts exhibited that the defendant in fact was entitled to. a verdict.
Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton county.
The claims sued on in the series of cases to which the above belongs aggregate about $27,000, and represent balances remaining unpaid on contracts for building the St. Nicholas Hotel annex. The improvement cost about that amount in excess of,jvbat was originally contemplated, and the issue is as to whether the solvent sisters of John Carlisle are liable as joint owners of the property for the additional cost due to changes ordered by John Carlisle in the original plans — that is, can they be held on the theory that their brother was their agent so far as the increased cost of the improvement is concerned? At the first trial there was a verdict in favor of the defendant sisters, which was reversed by the circuit court. The court directed verdicts against these women, to which error was prosecuted.
G. W. Baker and E. K. Stallo, for Plaintiffs in Error.
Thomas McDougall, Herron, Gatch & Herron, and Stephens & Lincoln, contra.

Opinion:
SMITH, J.
In this case we are of the opinion that the trial court erred to the prejudice of the plaintiffs in error, in two particulars, viz.:
First — In refusing to allow them to oiler evidence tending to show that prior to the malking of the contracts sued on, the plaintiffs in error had entered into a contract with John Car-lisle and George W. Carlisle, their brothers and tenants in common with them of the real estate known as the St. Nicholas Hotel property, to the effect that in consideration of the conveyance by said plaintiffs in error to the said John and George W. Carlisle of their interest in other real estate owned by them, the brothers were to make the improvement of the St. Nicholas property as provided for in the contract between Mr. Both and John Carlisle, who had signed said contract as trustee for the heirs of John Carlisle; and further, that said plaintiffs in error never authorized John Carlisle to make the contracts sued on in these cases for them, and had no knowledge of the making of the same, or of the terms thereof; and
Second — In directing the jury, after the evidence on both sides had been fully heard, to return a verdict for the plaintiffs below.
Under the pleadings and the evidence offered the question whether the plaintiffs below were entitled to recover was one for the jury alone. In Neuman v. Cincinnati, 18 Ohio, 323, the court held, "that it is error to charge the jury in general terms,'that the plaintiff has no cause of action, and that they must find for the defendant, especially where evidence has been exhibited by both parties; and for such error the judgment must be reversed, although the reviewing court may be satisfied upon the facts exhibited that the defendant, in fact, was entitled to a verdict." For like reasons, we think that under such circumstances the court has no right to say to,the jury that the plaintiffs are entitled to recover. The judgments will, therefore, be reversed and new trials awarded.
Giffen, J., concurs in the judgment of reversal, not only for the reasons stated above, but on the further ground that the verdict of the jury was manifestly against the weight of the evidence, in finding that John Carlisle was authorized to make the contracts sued on on behalf of the plaintiffs in error, or to bind them thereby.