Court Opinion

ID: 9865862
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 22:59:16.393156+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:59:21.791205
License: Public Domain

*239Response to the Petition eor Rehearing by the Court.
The petition for rehearing in this ease and in a number of other cases filed of late indicates a misunderstanding as to how the work of the court is done. When cases are submitted they are sent out by the Chief Justice to the judges and commissioners in rotation. The one to whom the case is assigned reports the case when the court meets for consultation. It is then considered by the court, which determines whether the judgment shall be affirmed br reversed, and also determines what shall be -written in the opinion. The opinion is then prepared by the judge or.the commissioner having the record, and it is then read to the court and, if need be, corrected by it.. It is then handed down. It is the opinion of the court and is often not written as the writer would have written if it were his personal opinion. If the facts of the case are fairly stated in the opinion, the conclusions of law may be accepted as the conclusions of the court on the law of the case. The writer of the opinion is responsible for the statement of the facts, but the court alone is responsible for the conclusions of law drawn from those facts.
When a petition for rehearing is.filed in a case written by one of the commissioners, the record is sent to> one of the judges. If a petition is filed in a case written by one of the judges, the record is sent to a judge other than the writer of the opinion. In either case, the judge to whom the record is sent examines the case and reports to the court the questions of law and fact. The case is then reconsidered by the court and such disposition is made as the court determines.
In this ease the facts are correctly stated. The judgment was reversed for the giving of the instruction indicated in the opinion, because, that instruction practically told the jury to find for the defendant if they were in doubt under the evidence.
The petition is overruled.