Court Opinion

ID: 9808953
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:56:05.195692+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:22:16.644716
License: Public Domain

Walker, J.,
concurring: In the complex situation which has resulted from the unsettled course of decision upon the question involved in this appeal as to the proper judgment to be entered, where there is a reversal of the Judge’s refusal to grant a nonsuit or to, dismiss the action tip on the evidence, I find myself in sympathy with what is said by Mr. Justice Brown on that point. If I have unwittingly contributed to bringing about the confusion, the sooner I assist in extricating the Court from the unfortunate dilemma, the better. I suppose that now I am remitted to the right of expressing my opinion in accordance with the original view I have always taken of the statute: that it means what we now decide it to mean, or it means nothing, and was therefore a vain and useless enactment. To my mind, at least, it is clear that if the defendant has the right to dismiss at the close of the testimony in the lower Court, he must needs have the same right here, or we do not enforce the will of the Legislature according to the intent and spirit of its enactment and we refuse to reverse an error in law which, by the Constitution, which is the law of our creation (Art. IY, sec. 8), and the statute (Revisal, secs. 1543 and" 1542) we are commanded to do. I concur in the opinion, as written by Mr. Justice Brown for the Court, in all respects, except as to the effect of a judgment of nonsuit upon the right of the plaintiff to bring a new action and prosecute the same successfully. As to whether the former judgment of nonsuit is a bar to a new action, I prefer not to consider in this appeal, as the qxiestion is not presented. I confine my concurrence to what is actually decided by us in this case.
CONNOR, J., concurs in the concurring opinion of Walker, J.