Goldman v. Piedmont Fire Ins. Co.

This action should be sent back for a new trial because of the serious results which arose from a misunderstanding as to what had occurred at an unrecorded trial conference between the court and counsel. The situation was not cured, as the majority opinion contends, by plaintiff’s attorney saying, “I will take it as your Honor remembers it.” That statement followed and was intimately connected with the attorney’s request that the court charge “ * * that this is the clause and that the burden is upon the defendants to prove it by the preponderance of the evidence.” The judge, answering that…