Johnson v. Oakes
Supreme Court of Georgia
Jury and jurors. Yerdict.' Mistake. Practice in superior court. Before Judge Wellborn. White superior court. October term, 1887. After argument of counsel in this case, the jury were charged and sent to their room to consider their verdict.
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Jury and jurors. Yerdict.' Mistake. Practice in superior court. Before Judge Wellborn. White superior court. October term, 1887. After argument of counsel in this case, the jury were charged and sent to their room to consider their verdict. The court announced that it was about to take a recess for dinner, and asked counsel what should be done with the verdict if the jury agreed before the recess was over; and it was agreed that they might hand their verdict to the clerk and disperse. During the absence of the court and counsel, the jury agreed, the foreman put the verdict in his pocket, and…
1Opinion of the Court
Bleckley, Chief Justice.
The verdict as written out and returned, through a misconception of the meaning of the words plaintiff” and “ defendant,” represented the intention of one juror, but misrepresented the intention of eleven of the jurors. The question was between a mistrial and sending the j ury back to reconsider the verdict. Perhaps a mistrial would have been the better result. But the court, in the exercise of its discretion, preferred to remand the jury, and we cannot hold that this was an usurpation of power. There is no suggestion that the jury had been tampered with. The…
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