92 Mass. 544
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Decided September 15, 1865
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1865-09-15
Tort for the conversion of twenty-nine sheep. At the trial in the superior court, before Russell, J., it appeared that the defendant found the plaintiff’s sheep in his orchard, destroying his apples and crops, and his hired men, by his direction, drove them into his barnyard, and one of them went for a field-driver, who lived at a distance of half a mile, and came immediately ; and the sheep were then driven into the highway, where the field-driver received them and took…
Decided 1865-09-15
¶1The ruling was clearly right. The sheep were in fact taken damage feasant, and not going at large in the highway. The defendant, having failed to comply with the provisions of Gen. Sts. c. 25, §§ 25-30, in relation to animals distrained for doing damage on land, was a trespasser ab initia. The case cannot be distinguished from Sherman v. Braman, 13 Met. 407.
¶2Exceptions overruled.