65 U.S. 533 | SCOTUS | 1860
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a writ of error to'the Circuit 'Court of the United States for the.district of Missouri. The suit in the court below was brought by the present plaintiffs, against the defendant as the surveyor and acting collector of the customs at St. Lo.uis, to recover the amount of. certain duties alleged to have been illegally exacted of the plaintiff, and paid-by him to the defendant under protest. " As alleged in the. declaration, the duties were assessed on the value of a large number of barrels, manufactured by the plaintiffs in the United States, exported empty to Matanzas, in the island of Cuba,' and brought back in 1853, filled with concentrated molasses or sugar. It was. an action of assumpsit, and the declaration .contained the usual counts .for money had and received, together with a special count detailing all the circumstances on which the claim was-founded.. Defendant -appeared, and the parties went to trial upon the general issue. At the close of the evidence, five prayers for instructions to the jury were presented by the plaintiffs, but the court refused to give any one of them; and at the request of'the defendant, instructed the jury that on the whole evidence in the case the plaintiffs could not recover against the defendant. Whereupon the. jury returned their verdict iii favor of the defendant, and the plaintiffs excepted, and sued out this writ-óf error to reverse