Morris v. First National Bank & Trust Co.

Ohio’s summary judgment statute, Section 2311.041, Revised Code, first became effective on November 9, 1959. The act was designed to relieve crowded court dockets of those cases which could be disposed of as a matter of law upon documents filed in the cause. It was hoped that the new law would eliminate the time-wasting process of calling a case before a court or jury, hearing opening statements or oral evidence, and then discovering that there was a complete failure of proof or simply no justiciable controversy before the court. However, recognizing our constitutional guarantee of trial by…