Hanlon v. O'Keefe

55 Mo. App. 528, 1893 Mo. App. LEXIS 341
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 19, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 55 Mo. App. 528 (Hanlon v. O'Keefe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hanlon v. O'Keefe, 55 Mo. App. 528, 1893 Mo. App. LEXIS 341 (Mo. Ct. App. 1893).

Opinion

Bond, J.

The petition filed in this case is as follows:

“Plaintiff states that, in May, 1888, he was the owner and entitled to the possession of a certain bay mare, and that defendant having fraudulently obtained possession of said mare, wrongfully detained her'in his. possession and refused to surrender the same to plaintiff ; that plaintiff was thereupon compelled to bring, and did bring, an action of replevin before a justice of the peace in the city of St. Louis against said defendant for the recovery of said mare; that defendant, upon the institution of said suit, executed a forthcoming bond in pursuance of the provisions of the statute, and was entitled to retain possession of the property pending said action; -that thereafter said cause was tried on appeal in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis on the-day of -, 1889, and, upon a trial thereof, judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff for the possession of said mare; that defendant thereupon took an appeal from said judgment to the St. Louis court of appeals and. filed a supersedeas bond, whereby he was enabled to continue in possession of said mare pending the appeal; that said appeal coming on to be heard in the St. Louis court, of appeals, the judgment of the circuit court was affirmed in all things; that by the terms of said judgment plaintiff was entitled to the possession [530]*530of said mare, should he so elect; that it was (as defendant well knew) plaintiff’s intention and desire to so elect, but that defendant, for the purpose of defeating and frustrating such contemplated election on the part of plaintiff, on the - day of-, 1889, wrongfully and fraudulently converted said mare to his own use by selling her to a third party for the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars ($150), and causing her to be shipped beyond the limits of this state, and it has thus become impossible for the officers of this court to execute said judgment by delivering said mare to plaintiff according to his election.
“Plaintiff states that the conduct of defendant in the premises has throughout been fraudulent, vexatious and oppressive; that defendant well knew that he had no right in the first place to detain plaintiff’s mare, and the appeal taken by him as aforesaid was (as defendant well knew) wholly without merit, and intended solely for vexation and delay, and for the purpose of affording him an opportunity to wrongfully deprive plaintiff of his property.
“Plaintiff states that, by reason of the premises, he has lost said mare and the use thereof, and has been compelled to incur large expenses in maintaining his legal rights, and has thereby sustained damages in the sum of five hundred dollars ($500), for which he prays judgment with costs.”

The defense to the foregoing petition was: First, a general denial; and, second, that in the replevin suit referred to in said petition a judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff for $45 as the value of the mare, and $10 as damages for her detention; that pending said replevin suit the defendant, believing himself the owner of the mare, sold her, and that the plaintiff, knowing of this sale, sued out an execution in the replevin suit on the judgment for her value and [531]*531damages, the amount of which the defendant paid to the sheriff.

On the trial of the issues thus made, the plaintiff introduced so much of the record of the replevin suit instituted by him for the mare in' controversy, as tended to show that judgment was rendered therein in his favor for the possession of said mare; which judgment on an appeal taken to this court was affirmed. 38 Mo. App. 273.

It also appeared from the record of the replevin suit so introduced in evidence that, during the pendency of that suit in the circuit court, the mare in dispute- was in the custody of the defendant under a forthcoming bond, and, during the pendency of that suit in this court, the mare in dispute was in the custody of the defendant under a supersedeas bond. There was evidence tending to show that, before the affirmance of said suit in this court and while it was here on appeal, the defendant sold the mare for $150; that, after its affirmance, the defendant paid into the hands of the sheriff of the city of St. Louis $50 upon an execution in his hands issued in said replevin suit, but did not place the mare adjudged to belong to the plaintiff in the hands of the sheriff, to the end that, the plaintiff might elect whether he would take the mare or her assessed value, as he was entitled to do by said judgment.

The plaintiff then applied for a rule upon defendant to produce said mare and turn her over to the sheriff, which rule was granted by the circuit judge, and thereafter, upon the affidavit of defendant filed in response to the rule so made, showing that he had sold the mare and she had been shipped out of the'state, the rule was discharged.

There wa,s other conflicting testimony as to the value of the niare in controversy.

[532]*532The case was tried by the court, sitting as a jury, and judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff, from which the defendant has appealed to this court, and assigns as error: First, that the petition does not set forth a cause of action-; second, that the court erred in giving its instructions and refusing those requested by appellant; third, that on the evidence the judgment should be reversed.

There is no merit in the first assignment of error. The petition alleges in substance that the plaintiff intended and desired under the judgment in the replevin suit in his favor to elect to take possession of the mare sued for, and that the defendant with knowledge of this intention, and to defeat such an election, wrongfully converted said mare to his own use by selling her to be shipped out of .the state, so that she could not be delivered to the plaintiff under the judgment and process thereon in the' replevin suit.

This was a sufficient averment of the rights of the respondent to the property converted by appellant/ Nor is there any force in the contention of the appellant that the object of the present suit is to recover the value which was rightfully adjudicated in the replevin suit. The authority cited by him, White v. Van Houten, 51 Mo. 577, is to the effect that, where a judgment rendered in a replevin suit in favor of a defendant, omitting any assessment of damages for detention, has been specifically complied with by the delivery and acceptance thereof of the personal property adjudged in his favor, such defendant cannot in a new action sue for damages for the detention of the property recovered in a replevin suit, merely because on the trial of that action no evidence whatever was offered on the issue of damages for detention.

■ This decision rests upon the principle of the conclusiveness of a final judgment as to all the issues upon [533]*533which it was obtained. Damages for detention are necessarily embraced in the issues in replevin. A judgment ignoring them for want of evidence is, therefore, conclusive, if unappealed from.

In the case at bar the judgment in the replevin suit, requiring the appellant to deliver the mare to the sheriff (to enable the plaintiff to elect whether he would take the mare and damages, or her assessed value and damages, in satisfaction), has never been complied with. This action is, therefore, for specific personal property which has been adjudged

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Jackson v. Morgan
78 N.E. 633 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1906)
Koelling v. August Gast Bank Note & Lithographing Co.
77 S.W. 474 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1903)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
55 Mo. App. 528, 1893 Mo. App. LEXIS 341, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hanlon-v-okeefe-moctapp-1893.