Smith-Booth-Usher Co. v. Detroit Copper Mining Co. of Arizona

(after stating the facts as above). At the close of the plaintiff’s testimony, on the motion of the defendant that the jury be instructed to return a verdict in its favor, the court, in an extended instruction to the jury, reviewed and weighed the plaintiff’s evidence, and concluded by saying:

The circumstances under which a court may withdraw a case from the jury are stated by Mr. Justice Harlan, sitting with Judge Lurton *602 and Judge Sage in the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in the leading case of Travelers’ Ins. Co. v. Randolph, 78 Fed. 754 , 24 C. C. A. 305 , in which he said:

In Mt. Adams & E. P. Inclined Ry. Co. v. Lowery, 74 Fed. 463, 477 , 20 C. C. A. 596 , 609, Judge Lurton said:

Again, in Rochford v. Pennsylvania Co., 174 Fed. 81 , 98 C. C. A. 105 , Judge Lurton said:

The right to a jury trial is guaranteed by the Constitution, and it is not to be denied except in a clear case. The foregoing decisions, and many others that might be cited, have definitely arid distinctly established the rule that if there is any substantial evidence bearing upon the issue, to which the jury might properly give credit, the court is not authorized to instruct the…