Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

25 Ind. 232

McDermitt v. Hubanks

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided November 15, 1865

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1865-11-15

<p>APPEAL from the BlaoJcford Common Pleas.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1865-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently December 1916

7 state decisions

50186518701880189019001910decided

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 →

Gregory, J.

¶1Súbanles and wife sued McDermitt, before a justice of the peace, in replevin for a horse. The affidavit stated that the horse was of the value of $25, and that the plaintiffs had sustained damages in the sum of $20 by the *233detention. In a complaint, however, filed before the justice, the damages claimed for the detention are $25. There was a finding and judgment on the trial before the justice for the plaintiffs. The defendant appealed to the Common Pleas 'Court, where a trial by jury was had. The jury found that the plaintiffs were entitled to the possession of the horse, and that the defendant wrongfully detained him; that the value of the horse was $20, and they assessed the plaintiff’s damages at $22 50. Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment overruled.

W. March, for appellant.J. Brownlee, for appellees.

¶2The evidence is not in the record.

¶3In a confused bill of exceptions, a great variety of objections are shown to have been taken by the appellant to the rulings of the court below, during the progress of the trial, but without the evidence in the cause this court cannot say that the appellant was injured by any of the rulings objected to. This court will not reverse a judgment on the ground that immaterial evidence was allowed to go to the jury, unless it appears that it might have prejudiced the rights of the party complaining.

¶4The only question properly before this court in the case in judgment is this, did the court below err in overruling the motion in arrest of judgment?

¶5It is urged that the jury found a greater sum in damages than was claimed. There is nothing in this. The plaintiffs, in addition to their affidavit, had a right to file their complaint before the justice. The damages claimed in the complaint were greater than those found by the jury.

¶6The finding is not very formal, but it is substantially good.

¶7The judgment is affirmed, with costs,

/25/ind/232 · .json · Public domain