27 Mo. 380 | Mo. | 1858
delivered the opinion of the court.
No circumstances of aggravation are shown in this case, and the action is therefore to be regarded as one of trover in reference to the measure of damages; (Walker v. Borland, 21 Mo. 289; Sedgwick on Dam. 558;) and in such cases the plaintiff is generally only entitled to recover the value of the property with interest. (Polk v. Allen, 19 Mo. 457.) If, however, the plaintiff has only a special property in the subject of the action, the value of the goods is not always the measure of relief, and he can generally only recover com-
The first clause of the second instruction is equivalent to a declaration that the plaintiff could recover, the value of his interest in the slave, and therefore properly prescribed the measure of damages. The instruction however goes further, and does not stop at laying down a rule that covers all the damages that the plaintiff was entitled to demand, but declares that he was entitled to recover for “ other damage.” The latter clause of the instruction invited the jury into a field of indefinite boundaries, for it did not indicate the kind of damages, whether actual, remote, or speculative, which it was proper for them to consider and allow in'addition to the value of the plaintiff’s interest in the share; and as the first
The judgment will therefore be reversed and the cause remanded;