Henries v. Vogel

Citations

• 87 Ill. 242

Syllabus

<p>1. Discretion—staying case till costs of former suit are paid, A motion by a defendant to stay proceedings in a suit until the plaintiff pays the costs in a former suit brought for the same cause, which had been dismissed, is addressed to the discretion of the court, and the decision can not be reviewed.</p> <p>2. Practice—improper remarks of counsel. It is the duty of the circuit court, in conducting trials by jury, to restrain every effort of the parties or their counsel to bring before the jury matters which are foreign to the issues, and especially to exclude all such matter where it has a tendency to excite the prejudices of the jury.</p> <p>3. If a plaintiff’s attorney, in his opening speech to the jury, with the permission of the court, and against the defendants’ objection, should state that, on a former trial, the defendant® had suborned their little son, then a child of four years, to commit perjury by swearing that his father did not strike plaintiff with a hatchet, and that one of the defendants had committed perjury in his affidavit for a change of venue, it would furnish good ground for reversing a judgment rendered for the plaintiff.</p> <p>4. Damages—whether excessive. In trespass for an assault.and battery with a hatchet, striking the plaintiff on the head, when there was considerable provocation, and no very serious or permanent injury inflicted, $1700 damages found by the jury was regarded by a majority of the court as excessive.</p>