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30 N.C. 47

Small v. . Pool

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided December 5, 1847

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1847-12-05

The case presents but a single point. The plaintiff claims damages of the defendant, for a fraud in the sale of a slave, named Tamer. In order to show the amount, to which he was entitled, the plaintiff introduced witnesses, who testified that the difference, between such a slave as Tamer was, if she had been sonad, and such as she actually was, was one half. So far as is disclosed by the case, this was all the evidence, upon that point, given to the jury.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“The price given by the purchaser, and that for which he sold it, do not, conclusively, fix the amount of damages. But it is competent as some evidence of the value of the property at the respective times of the purchase and the sale, and as such the jury had a right to have it.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Southern Watch Supply Co. v. Regal Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1847-12-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently July 1986

6 state decisions

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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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Nash, J.

¶1 The refusal of the Judge to receive the evidence offered by the defendant is the error of which he complains. We think his Honor erred, and that the testimony ought to have been received. In actions sounding in damages, the jury, in general, have a discretionary power, in awarding them, subject to the control of the Court. But in a case of deceit in the sale of property, *48 the law has adopted as the rule by which the jury,, are to be governed, and the damages estimated, the difference in the value of the article sold, as sound or unsound, at the time of the sale. The price given by the purchaser, and that for which he sold it, do not, conclusively, fix the amount of damages. But it is competent as some evidence of the value of the property, at the respective times of the purchase and the sale, and as such the jury had a right to have it. Clare v. Maynard, 32, E. C. L. R. 714. It does not establish the value, but may aid and assist the jury in their enquiries upon the point. More particularly was it admissible in this case, as the plaintiff had furnished the jury with no evidence upon which they could understandingly act.

¶2 He did not show what sum Tamer was worth at the time of the sale, either as sound or unsound.

¶3 Per Curiam. Judgment reversed, and a venire de novo awarded.

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