Samuel Freeman Miller

“ As the case before us does not come within the exception above mentioned, it is our duty to render the judgment which we have shown that the Circuit Court should have rendered. The process, the pleadings, the trial, and the verdict are without error, and it surely cannot be necessary to set aside this verdict and award a new trial because the judgment which was rendered on that verdict was erroneous. ”

“ As their liability depended on the same evidence and was founded on the same policy, and as their defence rested on the same issues, to be supported by the same testimony, it was manifestly for their interest to have but one trial, and no reason is apparent to us why this could not be done by consent. ”

“ Based on the facts of the case the defendants at the trial asked instructions, the substance of which is condensed in the proposition that they had a right to proof of loss by an intelligent being, and if plaintiff was insane no such proof had been given, and if he were sane then his affidavit showed such fraud as should defeat recovery. The last of these propositions is not denied, but was not asked as an independent instruction. But the first is too repugnant to justice and humanity to merit serious consideration. ”