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14 Wend. 201

Bailey v. Adams

New York Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1835

New York Supreme Court · decided 1835-10-15

Error from the Onondaga common pleas. Bailey sued Adams in an action of trover for a wagon, in which the defendant pleaded the general issue. The plaintiff proved that he bought the wagon of one Collier and paid him $65 for it. The wagon at the time of the purchase was at the shop of a wagon-maker, one Aaron Drake, where it had been taken by Collier for the purpose of having a box made and painted.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1835-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently June 1901

10 state decisions

3018351840185018601870188018901900decided

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.

¶2The title of Bailey to the wagon in question was sufficiently established. Drake waived his lien upon it for making and painting the box, by his special agreement to take his pay in tailoring from Collier, except to the amount of two dollars which Bailey was to pay. It is evident that the personal credit of the parties was intended to be relied upon. No time was fixed within which the tailoring was to be done, and if the lien was not to be considered as waived, it might continue for an indefinite time. It seems to be well settled that a special agreement of this description discharges the lien. 2 Kent’s Commentaries, 500. 16 Vesey, 275. 1 Mason, 191. 4 Wheaton, 255. 9 Cowen, 52. It is unnecessary therefore to consider the question, whether a third person can avail himself of the lien in favor of a mechanic, in order to defeat an action of trover brought to recover the chattel. There are authorities on both sides of the question. 2 *204N. Hamp. R. 319. 5 T. R. 606. 7 East, 5. 2 Saund. 47, b. 9 Gowen, 52. 6 Wendell, 608. 4 id. 292.

¶3But I do not think that enough was done by the defendant to constitute a conversion. He directed a levy upon the wagon while unfinished at the shop of Drake; he did not take possession of it, but left it as he found it, and as soon as he was informed that the plaintiff claimed the wagon, he gave him notice that he relinquished all claim or right to it. The actual possesion of the property was not changed; the plaintiff was put to no charge in respect to it, and I think ought not to be permitted to sustain this action. See Reynolds v. Shuler, 5 Cowen, 323, and Bristol v. Burt, 7 Johns. R. 254, where all the cases are referred to.

¶4Judgment affirmed.

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