St. Louis National Stock Yards v. Wiggins Ferry Co.

Citations

• 102 Ill. 514
• 1882 Ill. LEXIS 62

Syllabus

<p>1. Law and fact—and what is reviewable in the Supreme Court. Where the terms of a contract are specifically determined, then the meaning or legal effect of such contract presents a pure question of law, and the court alone is permitted to construe it. But where not only the legal effect of the agreement upon the controversy in hand is to be determined, but also the terms of the agreement itself are to be ascertained from extrinsic proofs, there is presented a mixed question of law and fact, to be determined by the jury, under proper instructions from the court, and when such question has passed through the Appellate Court this court has no right to review it.</p> <p>2. It is not necessarily true, that where in the attempt to establish what were the terms of an agreement by extrinsic proofs there was no conflict in the testimony, the question becomes purely one of law. The evidence tending to establish a contract may be all on one side, and yet may be of such character as to leave the question as to whether a legal contract was in fact made or not, in extreme doubt, and in such case the question as to the malting of the contract, and the purport of its terms, together with its legal effect, is a mixed question of law and fact, and when the decision thereon in the trial court has been affirmed by the Appellate Court, that decision is conclusive upon this court.</p> <p>-3. Same—;jury in civil cases not to determine questions of law. It is not to be understood that in the submission to a jury of a mixed question of law and fact, the jury, in any civil case, is to determine what the law is, except as it receives it from the court. Many issues are necessarily so made up as to involve matters' of law as well as of fact, and the whole matter is then properly submitted to the jury as a mixed question of law and fact,—but in disposing of the issue the jury is bound to act upon the law as given to it by the court, and apply it to the facts, as found, under guidance of the c