Leonard v. Wilkins

Decided August 15, 1812

New York Supreme Court · decided 1812-08-15

IN ERROR, on certiorari, from a justice’s court. Leonard sued Wilkins, before the justice, for shooting the dog of the plaintiff. The defendant pleaded not guilty, and the cause was tried before a jury. It was proved that a dog, of the pointer breed, was possessed by the plaintiff, and that he had no other dog. The defendant said to one of the witnesses that he had shot the plaintiff’s dog.

Cited in Bouvier (1839)’s definition of “Animal”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1812-08-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently August 1915

6 state decisions

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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Per Curiam.

¶1The verdict below was not against law. The dog was on the land of the defendant, in the act of destroying a fowl; and the defendant was justified in killing him, in like manner as if he was chasing and killing sheep, deer, calves, or other reclaimed and useful animals. This principle has been frequently and solemnly determined. (Cro. Jac. 45. 3 Lev. 25.)’ It was for the jury to determine whether the killing was justified by the necessity of the case, and as requisite to preserve the fowl; and the fowl being on the land of the defendant was enough, without showing property in the fowl.

¶2Judgment affirmed.