11 Pa. 381 | Pa. | 1849
The opinion of this court was delivered by
Two errors are assigned, one of which only it will be necessary particularly to notice, as the first is clearly untenable. It would have been an unwarrantable interference with the province of a jury, for the court to have instructed them, as a matter of law, that the testimony given showed such a sale and delivery of the boat as vested the right in the owner of the steamboat Arrow. The evidence of ownership was a disputed fact, which was left properly to the decision of the jury. The only possible difficulty there can be in the case, is in the second error, in directing the jury to find
In an action of replevin, where the defendant retains the property, the measure of damages is ordinarily the value of the property, and damages for the detention, which is usually the interest on the value from the time of taking: Wilkinson on Replevin, 6 Law Library, 31, 1 Y. 478, 5 S. & R. 130, 4 W. 63, 3 Barr, 20. But though this is the general, yet it is not the universal rule, for circumstances may attend the taking and detention which will justify the jury in giving exemplary damages. The exceptions are as well settled as the rule itself. Thus, when the taking or detention, or both, are attended with circumstances of aggravation, the party is entitled in some form, as is conceded, to more than compensatory damages, and why should he not have his full measure of redress in the action of replevin without compelling him to resort to an action to repossess himself of his goods, unlawfully taken, and to another for his damages ? Multiplicity of actions is always avoided if possible. In moulding the action of replevin, the court have endeavoured to give the remedy such a shape as to afford the injured party essential redress. For this reason, they have not confined the remedy to compensatory damages, hut have, under peculiar circumstances of outrage and wrong, extended them far beyond these limits. And this is plain on authority. Thus, in Dorris v. Barbour, 6 S. & R. 426, the court say, the value of the property is usually the measure of damages, although the jury are justifiable in going further wherever there has been an outrage in the taking, or vexation and oppression in the detention. In Taylor v. Morgan,
Judgment affirmed.