Marsh v. Pier

4 Rawle 273, 1833 Pa. LEXIS 31
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 29, 1833
StatusPublished
Cited by80 cases

This text of 4 Rawle 273 (Marsh v. Pier) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marsh v. Pier, 4 Rawle 273, 1833 Pa. LEXIS 31 (Pa. 1833).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Kennedy, J.

This was an action of replevin, and was commenced on the 27th of November, 1828, in the District Court for the City and County of Philadelphia, by the defendant in error, against the plaintiff in error, for the recovery of ninety-seven tons of logwood, claimed by the plaintiff below as his property, to which the defendant there, by his plea, put in on the 25th of March, 1829, also asserted his right of property. Issue was joined on the plea of property alone, after which the cause was tried by a jury, on the 21st day of April, [280]*2801832, and a verdict given in favour of the plaintiff for three thousand and forty seven dollars thirty-nine cents damages, upon which the court rendered a judgment in favour of the plaintiff, for the amount of the damages so found by the jury, and his costs.

On the trial of the cause in the District Court,-the plaintiff there, in order to establish his right of property in the logwood, gave in evidence, that in the beginning of September, 1828, it was purchased of the owners thereof for him at Tabasco, and put on board of his vessel, the brig Sally Barker, then at that place, and under the care of John II. Marshall, employed by Sylvester Pier, the plaintiff below, as the captain and master of the brig, to bring her with the cargo to the city of New York, where the plaintiff then resided. Three or four days after the captain sailed from Tabasco, with the logwood as his cargo, he fraudulently, as was alleged by the plaintiff, and under a false pretence of the brigs’ being leaky and unfit to make the passage good to New York, changed his course and went to New Orleans. There he had a survey made of the vessel, which w'as condemned. Ife placed her with the logwood, under the authority of William Nott and John Parker, commission merchants at that place, to be sold by them. The logwood weighing in all, ninety-seven tons thirteen hundred three quarters and fourteen pounds, was sold by these gentlemen to Samuel P. Morgan Sp Co., at seventeen dollars and fifty cents per ton, who transmitted it by the barque Hercules to Philadelphia, consigned to Messrs. C. Price Sp Morgan, of that place. It arrived there about the 28th of October, 1828, and about five weeks afterwards was sold by these last named gentlemen to the defendant below, James Marsh, at twenty-six dollars per ton cash. On the 30th or 31st of the same October, Sylvester Pier, the plaintiff, residing still at New York, received a letter from William Nott Sp Co. advising him of their having sold the logwood, at seventeen dollars and fifty cents per ton cash, and of the disposition made of the proceeds thereof by them. On the first day of November, then next following, Sylvester Pier, having come to Philadelphia, found the logwood there on board of the barque Hercules, and immediately caused a written notice to be given to William Longcope, the captain of the Hercules, and likewise to Messrs. Price Sp Morgan, that he claimed the logwood as his property, and at the same time demanded the delivery of it, and forbade them to dispose of it to any other, as he would hold them responsible to him for it.

The defendant below, on the trial of this cause, in order to sustain his plea, among other things, offered to read in evidence to the jury the exemplification duly certified, of a record of a judgment rendered in the Superior Court of the city of New York, in favour of William Nott above named, in a suit brought by Sylvester Pier, the plaintiff below in this case, against him and John Parker, above named, the latter of whom was returned by the sheriff upon the writ of capias ad respondendum, commencing the suit, not found.” The cause of action as set forth in this exemplification is contained in nine counts, [281]*281the first of which, after stating that William Nott and John Parker, as the agents of the said Sylvester Pier, took possession of the vessel, called the Sally Barker, and cargo, consisting of one hundred tons and upwards of logwood, of the value of three thousand dollars, for the purpose of taking care of and preserving the same for the said Sylvester Pier, and in consideration of a reasonable reward to be paid to them, they undertook and promised the said Sylvester Pier, to take care of the vessel and cargo, to keep the same safely for him, and to deliver the said vessel and cargo to him, when they should be thereunto afterwards required; yet the said Notl and Parker, did not take due and proper care of the said vessel and cargo, or either of them, or any part thereof, or deliver the same to the plaintiff but on the coutrary, without necessity or justifiable cause, and contrary to their duty and promise, and against the will of the plaintiff, on the 10th day of October, 1828, at New Orleans, caused the said vessel and cargo to be sold, whereby the said vessel and cargo became and were ivhollij lost to the said Sylvester Pier.

The second and third counts, are for breaches of promises nearly of the same import as in the first count, except that it is not alleged that the defendants sold the vessel and cargo.

The fourth count, is upon a promise stated to hare been made by the defendants to the plaintiff, that they in consideration of his having delivered to them, at their request, the logwood, of the value of three thousand dollars, and having made a promise to pay them a reasonable reward, would take care of the logwood and reship it at New Orleans on board of some vessel bound for New York, for and on account of the plaintiff, which they failed to perform, whereby he lost the whole of it.

The fifth count, is for a breach of promise in respect to the vessel alone, which is alleged to be of the-value of two thousand dollars.

The sixth count, is upon a promise stated to have been made by the defendants to the plaintiff, to account to him for divers goods and merchandizes belohging to him, of the value of five thousand dollars, delivered to them at their request by the plaintiff, to be sold and disposed of by them for him, and which they accordingly sold at New Orleans, on the 20th of October, 1828, amounting in the whole, to five thousand dollars, but failed to account for the same.

The seventh count, is for a breach of promise to account for other goods of the value of five thousand dollars, put into the hands of the defendants by the plaintiff

The eighth count, is upon a promise to pay five thousand dollars lent, five thousand dollars paid, laid out and expended, and the like sum had and received.

The ninth and last count, is upon an account stated, in which it is averred, that the defendants were found indebted to the plaintiff in other five thousand dollars.

To this exemplification being read in evidence to the jury, the counsel for the plaintiff below objected; and the court thereupon [282]*282overruled the evidence; to which opinion of the court, the defendant below excepted and has assigned it here, as the ground of his third error.

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Bluebook (online)
4 Rawle 273, 1833 Pa. LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marsh-v-pier-pa-1833.