Roger B. Taney

“ No one, we think, can read the pleadings and the verdict without being satisfied that this is the true meaning of the jury. There is no ambiguity or uncertainty in it. And the judgment in the Circuit Court is evidently according to this finding, and is therefore correct, unless there is some rule of law which renders the verdict inoperative and void.
It is certainly the province of the jury, in a case of this kind, not only to determine whether the plaintiff is entitled to recover, but to find also and at the same time the amount due. ”

“ It not only enables the courts of the United States, but it enjoins it upon them as a duty, to disregard the niceties of form, which often stand in the way of justice, and to give judgment according as the right of the cause and matter in law shall appear to them. ”

“ It is conclusive upon this court as to the fact found, while in Louisiana it is open to revision and reversal in the appellate court. And if the conclusive force and effect of a verdict depends upon the rules of the common law, it would seem to follow, that what is a sufficient finding by the jury to constitute a legal verdict upon the issues joined, and to make it operate as such, must also depend upon the rules of the common law, except in so far as they may be modified by acts of Congress. ”