27 Mo. 532 | Mo. | 1858
delivered the opinion of the court.
This was an action of forcible entry and detainer, and on the trial in the circuit court the verdict was as follows: “We, the jury, find the defendants guilty in manner and form as charged in plaintiffs’ complaint, and that they took possession of the premises the 15th of November, 1854 ; and that they have and recover of and from the defendants damages at the
The defendants made a motion in arrest of judgment, which was overruled; and the only question here is whether the verdict will support the judgment.
Questions like this one ought never to arise, because they are so easily avoided. The court .had authority to correct the verdict in matters of form in presence of the jury; and, besides, the statute not only describes all the elements of a verdict in an action like this, but furnishes two forms — one to be used in the event that the jury find for the plaintiff, and the other in the event they find for the defendant; (R. C. 1855, p. 790, § 18,19;) and, in a case where the verdict must be different from the usual form, both forms as given by the statute could be handed to the jury — one to be signed after filling the necessary blanks if they find for the plaintiff, and the other to be returned if they find for the defendant. The seventeenth section provides that in all cases of a verdict for the complainant, damages shall be assessed as well for waste and injury committed upon the premises, as for rents and profits due and owing up to the time of finding the verdict, and the verdict shall also contain a finding of the monthly value of the rents and profits of the premises. After judgment tlie plaintiff may be delayed by the defendant in getting possession, and the object of the last clause of the section is to fix a sum, which is doubled by the court, that the plaintiff will be entitled to receive, in addition to the damages, to cover the time he is kept out of possession from the day of the verdict until restitution is made. The sum
The judgment does not declare the monthly rents to which the plaintiff would be entitled from the time of the verdict until restitution of the premises, and the plaintiff will therefore lose the right to demand any rents since the trial, and can only receive on the execution restitution and the damages with interest; but the defendant gains by this omission and can not complain of it.
The complaint filed before the justice is set out twice in the record. In one place the forcible entry is stated to have been on the 6th December, 1853, and in the other on the 6th December, 1854; but the year is immaterial; and admitting that the plaintiff could only recover the rents from 6th December instead of 15th November, the judgment is still for less than double the amount the plaintiff was entitled to, counting from the 6th of December.
The other judges concurring, the judgment will be affirmed.