Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

11 Mo. 105

Lane v. Dobyns

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided October 15, 1847

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1847-10-15

ERROR, to St. Louis Court of Common Pleas. Statement of the Case. In this case the plaintiff sued the defendant in an action of trespass, and the declaration alleged that the plaintiff was legally entitled to the possession of certain premises, hut that defendant entered thereupon and ejected plaintiff and took possession of the premises, and the rents and profits thereof for the space of four years, to the damage of the plaintiff five hundred dollars.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1847-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently April 1942

1 federal appellate · 4 state decisions

1018471850186018701880189019001910192019301940decided

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 →

McBride, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court.

¶2Did the Court err in overruling the demurrer to the defendants plea in abatement? In support of the demurrer, reference is made to 1 Chitty’s Plead., 75, 76, where it is stated that “a tenant in common may however in general sue separately; as in ejectment for his undivided share, or in trespass for the mesne profits, or in debt for double value against a person who has held over after the expiration of his tenancy. But a joint action for mesne profits may be supported by several lessor’s of the plaintiff in ejectment after recovery therein, although there were only seperate demises by each.” And 2 T. R., 246, is cited by Mr. Chitty to sustain this proposition.

¶3In 8 Cow. R., 308, the foregoing rule lias been examined at length, and the case upon which it is based is shown to be an exception to the general rule, growing out of the circumstances of that case.

¶4The general rule is, that tenants in common must join in all personal actions concerning the common property; otherwise a multiplicity of suits might be brought for the same cause of action and against the same party. This would be against public policy.

¶5No reason is apparent to make this case an exception to such rule. The judgment of the court of Common Pleas ought to be affirmed, and the other Judges concurring, it is affirmed.

/11/mo/105 · .json · Public domain