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9 Ala. 206

Gary v. Terrill

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided January 15, 1846

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1846-01-15

Detinue by the plaintiff in error, for a slave, against the defendant, who claimed title under a sale by the sheriff, who sold the slave by virtue of an execution against Thomas P. Terrill. From the bill of exceptions, it appeared that Thomas P. Terrill had been in the possession of the slave, from the 1st March, 1837, to about the 1st January, 1843; that he is the son of the defendant, and resided in this State, and that the defendant resided in South Carolina.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1846-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently February 1917

5 state decisions

2018461850186018701880189019001910decided

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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ORMOND, J.

¶1The court erred*in excluding the evidence of the declarations of Thomas P. Terrill, in relation to his title, whilst in possession of the slave. This point has been frequently decided by this court. [Oden v. Stubblefield, 4 Ala. Rep. 40; Garey v. Frost & Dickinson, 5 Id. 636; McBride and wife v. Thompson, 8 Id. 650.]

¶2In the case last cited, it was held, that it was allowable to prove the declarations of one in possession of personal property, to establish whether he held it in his own right, or under another, but that his declarations would not be evidence to prove the consideration paid for • it. Here it was proposed to prove, that T. P. Terrill, whilst in possession of the property, claimed it as his own. The competency of such evidence, does not depend on the fact, that the declarations are made in the hearing of the opposite party, but it is because it relates to, and is connected with the possession, and is therefore a part of the res gestee. It is therefore competent testimony ; what weight it is entitled to, is a question for the jury, considering the declarations so made, in connection with the otlier facts in the cause.

¶3For the error of the court in excluding this evidence, the judgment must be reversed, and the cause Remanded.

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