Lestrade v. Barth
Before: Baldwin
Synopsis
The Court below has power to grant amendments whenever, at any stage of the trial, they are necessary to the purposes of justice; and this power should be liberally exercised to secure a fair and speedy trial on the merits.
Where, on the trial of an ejectment suit, certain evidence offered by defendant was rejected on the ground, that the averment in the answer that the original location of the lot in dispute was according to “ the actual plan then used and recognized of the town of San Francisco or Yerba Buena,” meant the map of the survey and not the actual survey or plan on the ground ; and the Court refused defendant permission then to amend his answer in this respect, but subsequently granted him a new trial for that purpose : Held, that the Court below had the power to grant the new trial for this cause; and that this Court will not interfere.
Baldwin, J. delivered the opinion of the Court Cope, J. concurring.
The order is affirmed on the authority of Peters v. Foss (16 Cal. 357). We have repeatedly held that it is within the power of the Court below to grant amendments whenever, at any stage of the trial, they are necessary to the purposes of justice. This power should be liberally exercised to secure a fair and speedy trial on the merits, and we do not feel disposed to interfere with the action of the Court below in the exercise of this discretion.
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