243 Pa. 24 | Pa. | 1914
Opinion by
This appeal is by the defendant from a judgment entered against him in an action of replevin, wherein a recovery was allowed for the value of certain bonds and stock found by the verdict to belong to the plaintiff, an unregistered foreign corporation. The jury fixed the value of the property at $5,000 and gave $2,600 damages for detention. Although there was a conflict in the testimony on some of the points, yet, in view of the verdict, and since there was evidence sufficient for the purpose, we must take as established the following material facts contended for by the plaintiff: That the plaintiff is a Delaware corporation, formed to manufacture car-wheels; that it was empowered to purchase property with its
Three substantial questions are presented for our consideration : (1) The plaintiff company being an unregistered foreign corporation, under the circumstances of this case, was it entitled in law to maintain its present action in the courts of Pennsylvania? (2) If the above point is answered in the affirmative, then, under the evidence and the applicable rules of law, can the finding of the jury as to the value of the replevied property be sustained? (3) Under the facts and the relevant rules of law, can the award of damages comprehended in the verdict be sustained?
For the purposes of this case it is not" necessary to', decide whether the plaintiff was “doing business” in such' a. way and to such.an extent as.to bring it within-theActs .of April 22,187á, P. L, 10.8,! and June 8,1911, P, L;
(2) In considering the second question, we must start with the rule in mind that when a plaintiff recovers the value of property replevied the effect is to transfer the title to the defendant: Fisher v. Whoollery, 25 Pa. 197; Herdic v. Young, 55 Pa. 176, 177. Under this rule the plaintiff receives the value of the articles retained by the defendant, and, where shown, sufficient incidental damages to compensate him; but, on the other hand, the defendant is supposed to get and retain property of a like value. Here the plaintiff by its own independent action deprived the property in question of any real value, at least six months before the writ of replevin issued. As stated by counsel for the plaintiff in their paper book,
(3) On the third question, the plaintiff seeks to sustain the award of $2,600 damages for detention upon the ground that, “from the date when the detention commenced, October 1,1910, the defendant by his acts, made sales impossible and caused the value of the plaintiff company’s stocks and bonds to decrease.” It is not necessary to decide the legal point, whether a substantial award of incidental damages can stand where the value of the replevied property is merely nominal; for, since the articles replevied had no actual value, so much of this $2,600 as covers interest on their supposed real value,
The plaintiff company may well feel that it was badly treated by the defendant, but when it annulled the contract and cancelled the bonds and stock held by him it took matters into its own hands, and when, under the circumstances, it subsequently chose replevin as a remedy, it became bound by the rules applicable to that form of action. Prior to the recent legislation upon the subject (April 19, 1901, P. L. 88; April 14, 19'05, P. L. 163), a defendant alone was entitled to a writ of retorno habendo; but since the Act of 1901, supra (sec. 7), the plaintiff may “at his option issue a writ in the nature of a writ of retorno habendo” requiring the delivery to him of the property replevied. The defendant here presumably still has the property in his possession, for at the time of trial his counsel made an express tender of “the bonds and stock mentioned and described in the writ of replevin,” which was subsequently withdrawn when counsel for the plaintiff refused to accept the tender, unless upon condition that it be allowed compensation for detention and exemplary damages. When this record is returned to the court below the plaintiff may secure a writ of retorno habendo to obtain the certificates of stock and bonds sought to be recovered, with “an added clause of fieri facias as to the......costs.”
We have endeavored to express our general thoughts upon the material points involved in this case, but we do not deem it essential and shall not attempt to pass specifically upon each of the thirty-four assignments of error. The record is returned to the court below with directions to strike out the monetary awards, but to permit the judgment in favor of the plaintiff to remain* for nominal damages and costs; to this extent the judgment is affirmed.