Barhyte v. Summers

This was an action brought originally in justice’s court by the plaintiff, alleging that the defendant s.old to him a horse which he knew to be unsound, fraudulently representing said horse to be sound “as far as he knew.”

The two vital questions upon the trial in the circuit, to which court it was appealed, were:

I. Was the horse unsound, lame, at the time of the sale?

2. If so, did the defendant know of such lameness?

The court in the course of the trial, and while the plaintiff had the case, said to plaintiff’s counsel:

“You have called five witnesses as to the condition of this mare before the…