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9 Mass. 427

Gardner v. Dutch

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided November 15, 1812

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1812-11-15

Replevin for seventy-six bags of coffee, containing 8991 pounds. The defendant pleaded property in Timothy Wellman and Benjamin Hopes, and avows the taking, &c., on the 4th of June, 1810, as a deputy sheriff, &c., by virtue of a writ of attachment, at the suit, of Gamaliel Hodges against the said Wellman 8f Hopes.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1812-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently June 1898

8 state decisions

30181218201830184018501860187018801890decided

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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The Court

¶1observed that, if the plaintiff was, in fact, tenant in common of the chattels with Wellman Of Ropes, he could not maintain replevin for his undivided share. But he was not tenant in' common. Though the bags belonging to him had no distinguishing marks, he might have * taken the number of bags and the quantity of coffee, to which he was entitled, by his own selection, while they remained in the hands of Wellman & Ropes; and the defendant,- as a deputy sheriff, could not change the rights of third parties. Then, if a return were to be ordered, the defendant would still be accountable to the plaintiff for the proceeds. Thus the whole case resolved itself into a question as to the form of the action, (a)

¶2Judgment on the verdict.

¶3[And see Damon vs. Osborn, 1 Pick. Rep. 476. — But see Austen vs. Craven, 4 Taunt. 644. — White vs. Wilks, 5 Taunt. 176. — 1 Marsh. 2. —Busk vs. Davis, 2 M. & S. 397. — 1 Marsh. 258. — 5 Taunt. 622.—Zagury vs. Furnell, 2 Camp. 240. — Shepley vs. Davis, 5 Taunt. 617. How could any one portion of the coffee be taken, as belonging to the plaintiff rather than another? Had not each, before a division by mutual consent, an interest in every part of it ? How, then, could either insist that, in any part in particular, he had an exclusive property ?— Ed.]

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