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12 S.C.L. 28

Stevens v. Simmons

Supreme Court of South Carolina

Decided January 15, 1821

Supreme Court of South Carolina · decided 1821-01-15

TlilS was an action of, debt, tried at Charleston, June, 1820, on a replevin bond, to which the defendant was security. The jury found fov the plaintiff the amount of rent due, and interest from the date of the judgment against the principal. A motion was marie for a new trial on two grounds: 1st. Because interest is not allowable on a replevin bond. 2d. If allowable, it can only be computed from the return of elongata.

Decided 1821-01-15

Mr. Justice Johnson

¶1delivered the opinion ofthe Court.

¶2As between the plaintiff and the principal, there can be no question, that the true measure of damages would have been the amount of the rent due, and interest on it; and if the distress had been returned according to the condition *29of the bond, and was sufficient, he would have made it by the sale of the distress. It constitutes the true "measure, therefore, of the injury he has sustained, anjl ought to be the true measure of his recovery.- The act of 1808, (1 Brev. 243,) makes the security liable for all sums due ior rent, whatever may be the value of the distress, and places him in the situation with his principal; .and interest is so inseparable from the principal sum, that 'it constitutes, as much a part of the sums due for rent, as the principal itself. The jury, therefore, did right in allowing the interest from the date of the judgment against the principal. They could not go further back, because, all that had previously accrued, necessarily entered into that judgment. The motion is refused.

Justices -Nott, Huger, Gantt, and Golcock¿ concurred.
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