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98 Mass. 515

Leighton v. Brown

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 15, 1868

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1868-01-15

<p>In an action of replevin the case was submitted by rule of court to a referee, who rendered an award for a return of the property with damages for its detention and costs of the reference and of court, on which award judgment was entered, but the plaintiff then refused to return the property on demand. In an action on the replevin bond, Held, that judgment should be entered for the penal sum and interest thereon from the time of such demand and refusal; and execution issue for the value of the property at that time, and interest thereon since, and also for the amount of the judgment for damages and costs awarded by the referee, with interest thereon from the date thereof, if the same had not been paid; provided that the sum thus computed should not exceed the amount of the judgment on the bond, in which event execution should issue for the exact amount thereof.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1868-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently July 1933

11 state decisions

5018681870188018901900191019201930decided

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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Foster, J.

¶1Judgment is to be entered in favor of the plaintiff for the penalty of the bond. Gen. Sts. c. 133, §§ 9,10. But interest on the penal sum therein named from the date of the breach may be added as damages for the detention, and will form a part of the judgment for the penalty to be rendered both against principal and sureties. Bank of Brighton v. Smith, 12 Allen, 243. Execution is to be awarded for so much of the penalty as shall be ascertained to be justly due, but it can in no event exceed the judgment.

¶2The breach assigned is the failure of the principal defendant, as plaintiff in the replevin suit, to comply with the order to return the property replevied, which was a part of the final judgment in that action. Damages for that breach must be the value of the property replevied. • In ascertaining the value of the schooner which was taken by the replevin writ and which the principal defendant now fails to restore, the leading principle is, that the party who has been deprived of his property is entitled as far as possible to complete indemnity. The appraisal made in the replevin suit is conclusive against the party by whom it was made. Parker v. Simonds, 8 Met. 205. But it is not admissible in evidence against the present plaintiff, who, as defendant in the replevin action, had no agency in procuring his valuation. Kafer v. Harlow, 5 Allen, 348. In the present ase the value was greater at the date of the final judgment ordering a return than at the date of the appraisal. The value at the date of a demand for the restoration of the property in compliance with the order of return is the measure of damages *517for which the plaintiff contends, and to which, in the opinion of the court, he is entitled. Swift v. Barnes, 16 Pick. 194.

¶3The judgment for damages awarded by the referee for the detention of the property pending the replevin suit, together with the costs of that action and interest on that judgment, may also be included in the assessment of damages for a breach of the bond, if the same have not been paid. But the award is merged in the judgment upon it, and no interest can be allowed upon the award previously to the rendition of the judgment.

¶4The assessor to be appointed will compute the damages upon the principles above stated; and if they equal or exceed the judgment, execution is to be awarded for the exact amount thereof.

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