89 Pa. 450 | Pa. | 1879
delivered the' opinion of the court, March 31st 1879.
The main contention of the plaintiffs in -error is that the Act of May 13th 1871, Pamph. L. 820, entitled “ An act to obtain possession of real estate by purchasers at coroners’, sheriffs’ and Orphans’ Court sales within the county of Schuylkill,” is unconstitutional, being in derogation of the righs of trial by jury secured in the Bill of Rights, by the declaration, “ Trial by jury shall be as heretofore, and the right thereof remain inviolate.” The object of this provision was to preserve the'jury as a tribunal for the decision of all questions of law and fact in criminal trials; and of all questions of fact in-civil causes. Such it-had been theretofore; and it was ordained by the people that such it should continue to be thereafter inviolate. Thus it was determined by this court that an Act of Assembly authorizing the court to enter a compulsory nonsuit — in a case where on all the facts given in evidence there was no legal liability in the defendant was constitutional: Munn v. Pittsburgh, 4 Wright 364. “The complaint,” says Mr. Justice Strong, “ that the constitutional right of trial by jury has been violated is made'without due consideration. The province of a jury has always been to determine facts. What is the law applicable to those facts has always been a question for the court. In ordering the nonsuit, the court conceded all the facts which the jury could have found, and simply declared that under the law
Judgment affirmed.