119 So. 662 | Ala. | 1929
This bill was filed for a partition of certain land, and the appellant set up an adverse claim to the land, and a jury was demanded to try the title, as authorized by section 6635 of the Code of 1923. The chancellor or judge of the equity side of the court submitted the issue to a jury regularly drawn and impaneled for the law term or side of the circuit court. Section 6631 of the Code of 1923. There seems to have been a distinction drawn in the past as to the effect of the verdict of a jury in equity cases upon the chancellor when either party is entitled to a jury and when they are not entitled, but the chancellor directs one to aid him in passing on certain facts or issues. Mathews v. Forniss,
In other words, as we understand, the effect of the former decisions is that it requires a final decree giving effect to the verdict of the jury to support an appeal, notwithstanding the proceedings in the law court may be revised upon such an appeal by a bill of exceptions; that an appeal from the verdict of a jury or a judgment thereon in the law court would be premature, as the chancellor or judge of the equity side of the court has the revisory power over same, and the result is not appealable until a decree is rendered in the equity side of the court.
True, the chancery and circuit courts were consolidated by the Act of 1915 (Acts 1915, p. 279), but the proceeding and practice of each was preserved in all its integrity. In fact, the case of Robinson v. Inzer,
The motion to dismiss the appeal is sustained.
GARDNER, BOULDIN, and FOSTER, JJ., concur.