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80 Ala. 433

Johnson v. McLeod

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1886

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1886-12-15

Tried before Hon. ¥m. E. Clarke. This action was brought by Amos N. McLeod, as administrator of the estate of Daniel McLeod, deceased, against William Johnson and Rab. Etheridge, to recover “one lot of staves and saw-logs,” and was commenced on the 25th day of September, 1885. The defendants filed pleas, denying the plaintiff’s right to maintain the suit, claiming that the defendants held the land from which the staves and logs were taken, under a lease from Thos.

Cited by 2 later decisions — most recently June 1933

2 state decisions

Relies on Cooper v. Watson · Townsend v. Brooks

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1886-12-15

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STONE, C. J.-

¶1-The present suit was an action “for the recovery of personal property in specie,” a statutory substitute for the common law action of detinue. — Code of 1876, §§ 2942, et seq. On all questions material to the present investigation, the statutory action is not essentially different from its common law prototype. The property sued for is described in the complaint as “one lot of staves and saw-logs.” It has the same description in the replevin bond, and in the verdict of the jury finding for the plaintiff. The verdict, which is copied in the judgment-entry, is in the following language: “We, the jury, find for the plaintiff, and assess the value of the property sued for at $189.” The judgment follows the verdict.

¶2The description, as we have seen, is onelot of staves and saw-logs. We must be presumed to know there is a wide difference between staves and saw-logs, and they constitute distinct classes. As distinct as, if not more widely different from each other, than cotton in bales, and cotton in the seed. Though called one lot, they were manifestly two lots, and their value should have been assessed separately. Townsend v. Brooks, 76 Ala. 308; Jones v. Anderson, lb. 428, and citations. “The judgment, following the verdict, is necessarily erroneous in the foregoing particular, and it must be reversed.” We consider it unnecessary to notice the questions raised by the charges asked, as there is nothing in them.

¶3Other questions are referred to in argument, but the record does not raise them. Cooper v. Watson, 73 Ala. 252; Mills v. Clayton, 81 Ala.

¶4Reversed and remanded.

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