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130 Pa. 413

Warren v. Ulrich

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Decided November 11, 1889

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1889-11-11

1 OP ALLEG-HENY COUNTY. No. 129 October Term 1889, Sup. Ct.; court below, No. 668 June Term 1888, C. P. No. 1. ' On May 29,1888, a summons was served in an action of assumpsit brought by John Warren, administrator d. b. n. c. t. a. of George Warren, deceased, against John Ulrich. Issue. At the trial on March 14, 1889, it was shown that George Warren died in 1879.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“the finder of money has title to it against all the world except the true owner.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including In Re Funds in the Possession of Conemaugh Township Supervisors

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1889-11-11

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently June 2000

5 state decisions

101889189019001910192019301940195019601970198019902000decided

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 →

Per Curiam:

¶1The evidence was undoubtedly weak to prove the ownership of this money. There was no positive proof bearing upon this question; but there was a chain of circumstances clearly proved, and not disputed, which render it extremely probable that the money in question had been buried, where it was found, by George Warren, the former owner or occupier of the property. Piad it been found while he remained upon the property, the case would have been much clearer; but it was not found until after his death, and after the premises had been occupied by other tenants for some years. Neither of them claim it, however, and, in view of Warren’s aversion to banks, and his known way of hiding and secreting his money, we are not surprised that the jury found him to have been the owner of it. It is true, the finder of money has title to it against all the world except the true owner; yet we cannot say there was not evidence of *415Warren’s title to submit to the jury, and their verdict is in accordance with all the probabilities of the case.

¶2Judgment affirmed.

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