David Josiah Brewer

“ Can it be that, after each of the jurors has signed the verdict, and after it has been returned, and each is present, ready to respond to a poll, the mere inability to complete the poll and make a personal appeal to each renders the entire proceedings of the trial void? We are unable to assent to such a conclusion. The right to poll a jury is certainly no more sacred than the right to have a jury ”

“ If a trial without a jury, when a jury is a matter of right, and no waiver appears of record, is not fatal to the judgment, a fortiori the minor matter of failing to poll the jury when it is clear that the verdict has received the assent of all the jurors cannot be adjudged a nullity, but must be regarded as simply an error, to be corrected solely by direct proceedings in review. ”

“ The line of demarkation between those rulings which are simply erroneous and those which vitiate the result may not always be perfectly clear, and yet that such demarkation exists is conceded. This ruling of the trial court, conceding it to be error, is on the hither side of this line, and could only be taken advantage of by proceedings in error. ”