Church v. Landers

Decided January 15, 1833

New York Supreme Court · decided 1833-01-15

This was an action of trover, tried at the Chenango circuit in October, 1831,- before the Hon. Robert Monell, one of the circuit judges. The action was brought to recover the value of a horse let to hire by the wife of the plaintiff, in the absence of her husband, to the defendant to go a journey of 35 miles; the horse died while in the possession of the defendant. The plaintiff was from home, attending to the business of rafting lumber.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1833-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently November 1911

11 state decisions

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.

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¶1By the Court,

Sutherland, J.

¶2A new trial must be granted in this case. The wife, in the absence of the husband, must be considered as having a general authority to exercise the usual and ordinary control over bis property, which must be possessed by some one; unless it be expressly shewn that he had constituted some other person his agent for that purpose. Nothing of that kind appears in this case. That the plaintiff once told his wife that she must not let or lend his horse, except to go for a doctor, was proved ; but it was a mere private communication, not known to the defendant or published so as to be generally known.