Labar v. . Koplin

The first point made by the appellants is that the judge who presided at the trial erred in refusing a nonsuit. According to the practice of the English courts, a plaintiff can not be nonsuited on the trial against his assent, but may insist on the cause going to the jury, and thus take his chance of a verdict. (Grah. Pr. 2d ed. 311, and the cases there cited.) With us, however, a plaintiff may be compelled to be nonsuited on the trial, when the evidence offered by him is clearly insufficient to support his action, there being then no question of fact to be decided by the jury. This power of…