McCormick v. McCormick

Citations

• 194 Pa. 107
• 45 A. 88
• 1899 Pa. LEXIS 742

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Issue devisavit vel non — Credibility of witnesses — Expression of opinion in charge.</p> <p>On the trial of an issue devisavit vel non, where the evidence is contradictory and the case turns almost wholly upon the credibility of the witnesses, an expression of an opinion by the trial judge in his charge, though dangerously close to the line of trespass on the province of the jury, is not a ground for reversing the judgment, if it appears that there was no erroneous statement of the law, no suppression or distortion of the evidence, and no imposition of the judge’s opinion as binding on the jury-</p> <p>In an issue devisavit vel non the judge sits as a chancellor, and must be allowed a very large discretion in his control of the findings.</p>