113 P.2d 597 | Okla. | 1941
The plaintiff filed an action to recover $200, representing premiums alleged to be due on a contract of insurance, and the defendants filed an answer and cross-petition in which they sought judgment for $196.75. A verdict was returned by the jury for $200, the amount sued for by the plaintiff. Defendants filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and the court set aside the verdict and entered judgment for the defendants for $196.75.
By the pleadings there was presented a contested question of fact. The question was determined by the jury in favor of the plaintiff. No special finding of fact was made by the jury.
The trial court erred in setting aside the verdict and entering judgment for the defendants on the answer and cross-petition unless as a matter of law the defendants were entitled to a judgment on the pleadings. The defendants admit that the action of the trial court is based upon the holding of this court in Schafer v. Midland Hotel Co.,
"A motion for a judgment non obstante veredicto does not present for consideration errors in the admission of evidence or the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict."
The court criticized and disapproved the language in Schafer v. Midland Hotel Co., supra, insofar as it purported to authorize a review of evidence on consideration of a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Therein the court said:
"In Beard v. W. T. Rawleigh Company,
"More recent decisions of this court to the same effect include: Diamond v. Enid Milling Co.
"A motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict does not present for consideration errors in the admission of evidence or the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict. Barnes v. Universal Tire Protector Co.,
For error in rendering judgment notwithstanding the verdict the cause is reversed and remanded, with directions to the trial court to set aside the judgment for the defendants and to enter judgment on the verdict.
Reversed and remanded, with directions.
CORN, V. C. J., and RILEY, BAYLESS, HURST, and DAVISON, JJ., concur. *55