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18 F. Cas. 1109

Park v. Willis

U.S. District Court

Decided November 15, 1813

U.S. District Court · decided 1813-11-15

This was an action on the case founded upon the Virginia laws of December 17, 1792, p. 192, § 50, and January 25, 1798, p. 374, §§ 6, 7; by the first of which it is enacted that no master of a vessel shall transport out of the commonwealth any servant or slave without the consent or permission of the person to whom such servant or slave doth of right belong, upon penalty of $150 for a servant, and $300 for a slave; one moiety to the commonwealth and the other to the owner;…

Decided 1813-11-15

THE COURT

¶1instructed the jury that the. defendant was liable in the case stated by them, and that the written agreement was not such a written permission as the act requires.

¶2That jury could not agree, and were discharged by consent. The cause came on again before another jury, at July term, 1811, when THE COURT (THRUSTON, Circuit Judge, absent) refused to instruct the jury that a general hiring by the defendant authorized him to carry the slave to Philadelphia, and refused to instruct them that if the course of the defendant’s business was known to the plaintiff’s agent at the time of the hiring, it authorized the defendant to take the slave out of the state of Virginia. And also refused to instruct them that the defendant, by the hiring, became the owner of the slave for the term for which he was hired.

¶3The same opinions and instructions were given upon the last trial, and bills of exceptions were taken, but no writ of error was prosecuted.

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