Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

10 Md. 234

Mitchell v. Mitchell

Court of Appeals of Maryland

Decided December 15, 1856

Court of Appeals of Maryland · decided 1856-12-15

<p>In an action of trespass for mesne profits, evidence of the net profits made by • the owner of an adjoining farm is not admissible for the purpose of showing what was made upon the land for the profits of which the suit was brought.</p> <p>In this case the decision of the court below, that in an action of trespass for mesne profits, the plea of limitations bars a recovery beyond' three years prior to the suit, was affirmed by a divided court.</p> <p>A prayer, that the defendant cannot deduct the taxes paid by him, “out of the profits” for the years for which they were assessed, until lie has been charged “vnth the profits of the previous years” barred by limitations, is erroneous in assuming the existence of profits during the years barred by limitations.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1856-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently April 1971

4 state decisions

101856186018701880189019001910192019301940195019601970decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Mason, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of this court.

¶2The plaintiff, to show the annual profits of the land, offered to prove by Mr. Jenkins, who lived upon the adjoining farm, the amount of net profits which his farm yielded. This testimony was objected to, and rejected by the court, and this forms the first exception. This testimony, a majority of the court are of opinion, was properly refused for the reason assigned, upon an analogous point, by this court, in the case of Keedy vs. Newcomer, 1 Md. Rep., 251, namely, “that it is no very unusual thing, that thriving and industrious farmers find themselves neighbors to those who are not so distinguished for those qualities,” and hence wdiat one man might make upon his farm, would be no criterion as to what his neighbor has made, even conceding the quantity and quality of the land of each to be equal, which is by no means universally true.

¶3Upon the question of limitations the courtis equally divided, and therefore the judgment of the court below must be affirmed upon the second exception.

¶4The proposition submitted by the plaintiff’s counsel in the third exception, namely, to make the taxes, &c., a charge upon the profits of the years excluded by limitations from the recovery, was doubtless intended to be a recognition of the principle asserted in the case of Ewalt vs. Gray, 6 Watts, 427. We think, under the decisions of this court, the circuit court *242could not have done otherwise than reject the prayer; for conceding the principle announced in it to be correct, yet it was defective in assuming the existence of profits during the years barred by limitations. The finding of the fact, whether or not there were profits, should have been left to the jury. Upon this point see the cases of Crawford vs. Berry, 6 G. & J., 63; Balt. & Susq. R. R. Co. vs. Woodruff, 4 Md. Rep., 242; Boyd vs. McCann, Ante, 118; and other cases.

¶5 Judgment affirmed.

/10/md/234 · .json · Public domain