Consolidated Steelcraft v. Knowlton

In my opinion the importance of this case lies in matters of procedure. When the court reopened the case for filing the amended answer and counterclaim, probably it would have been better, so far as the parties were concerned, to treat the matter as if it had started at that time, and permitted the filing of the second amended answer. However, as an appellate court, we are not always in a position, with merely the written record before us, to appraise the good faith of the litigants in their treatment of the lower court. Ulterior motives do not always show up in black and white. For this…