Court Opinion

ID: 9605462
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:37:23.859795+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:16:31.209228
License: Public Domain

THE HONORABLE GEORGE J. ALLEN:
The lower court gave plaintiff’s Offered Instruction No. 1 without objection, reading in part as follows:
“If you find from a preponderance of all the evidence and in accordance with these instructions that the sale by the defendant Great Falls Livestock Commission Co. of the said 173 head of cattle owned by the plaintiff was unauthorized by the plaintiff, or anyone acting on its behalf with authority, either actual or ostensible as elsewhere defined in these instructions so to do, then you must return a verdict for the plaintiff and you must determine by a preponderance of all the evidence and in accordance with these instructions the damages suffered by the plaintiff as a result of such unauthorized sale.”
*37The instructions of the court are the law of the case and must be followed by the jury whether correct or incorrect.
"While I agree with the view of Mr. Justice Castles in his dissent, that no question of agency should be involved, the lower court having injected the question of agency into the instructions in the case, it then became incumbent upon the court to follow through with proper definitions to guide the jury in its application of the instruction given. This the court did not do.
Therefore, I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion, but for the reason herein given.