Finney v. Curtis

Works, J. Action for damages for personal injuries done the plaintiff by defendant’s horse. Trial by jury, verdict for plaintiff for three thousand five hundred dollars, judgment accordingly, motion for new trial overruled, defendant appeals. The gist of the complaint is, that the defendant, knowing his horse to be vicious, induced the plaintiff to assist him in an attempt to hitch the horse to a wagon, by falsely stating to him that the horse was gentle; that plaintiff did attempt to assist him, whereupon the horse became unmanageable, knocked the plaintiff down and trampled upon him, breaking his leg, so that amputation became necessary. There was a demurrer to the complaint, which was properly overruled. The answer denied all of the material allegations of the complaint. Some questions are raised upon rulings relating to the admission and exclusion of evidence, but we have found no material errors in any of these rulings.

The court, at the request of the plaintiff, gave the following instruction:—

“The court instructs the jury that if they believe from the evidence that the defendant, Forrest Curtis, represented the horse which he had harnessed to be gentle, and by such representations induced the plaintiff to approach and take hold of the horse, and if they believe that the horse was not gentle, and the plaintiff was, without negligence on his part, injured by said horse, then the defendant is responsible for the injury sustained by the vice of the horse.”

The giving of this instruction is assigned as error. The question is elaborately discussed in the briefs. There appears to be some doubt in the mind of counsel whether the action is founded on fraud or negligence, and the elementary principles relating to each are learnedly discussed, and numerous authorities cited and quoted from at length. The appellant favors us with twenty-three printed pages on this question-alone in his original brief, [501]and his reply contains fourteen additional pages on the same subject. We desire to give to the arguments of counsel a full and careful reading, but such a brief as this is wholly unnecessary and burdensome. What we need for the proper consideration of a case is a clear, brief statement of the point made, with a citation of authorities bearing directly upon them. Long quotations from authorities are unnecessary. We can read the original quite as conveniently. Where thequotation contains a brief statement of the point relied upon, it is proper, but not otherwise. We call attention here to what seems to be the growing tendency of attorneys to over-burden us with long briefs, to no purpose but to delay us in our work, and to weaken the presentation of their cases.