Essex v. McPherson

Citations

• 64 Ill. 349

Syllabus

<p>Incompetency on a juror as a ground for a new trial. In a suit at law, where the verdict was in favor of the defendant, the plaintiff made a motion for a new trial upon the ground, supported by affidavit, that one of the jurors who sat on the trial of the cause had made a bet of a neck-tie that the result of the cause would be in favor of the defendant, which fact was unknown to the plaintiff until after the trial: Held, that the juror was incompetent, and, although he made affidavit that he went upon the jury without bias or prejudice for or against either side, the law must deem it otherwise, and regard the wager as implying a bias, and the objection being unknown until after the trial, and of so peculiar a character that the court could not say that by the exercise of reasonable diligence it might have been discovered before the trial and availed of as a cause of challenge, it might be made available as the ground for a new trial, and the motion should have been allowed.</p>