23 Tex. 173 | Tex. | 1859
In this case, the appellees recovered a judgment in the court below against one Rufus R. Ratcliff. Execution issued on said judgment, and was levied on a negro girl slave. This slave was claimed by Mrs. Ratcliff, the appellant, and bond was given by her, for the trial of the right of property. At the first term of the court, after the cause was docketed, the claimant of the property failed to appear, and there was judgment by default for the plaintiffs in the writ. This judgment by default was set aside upon motion, and the cause was continued until the next term. At the, next term, the claimant of the property again failed to appear, and there was another judgment by default rendered in favor of the plaintiffs in the writ. A writ of inquiry was awarded. A jury was called, and the court submitted to the jury the issue, whether or not the slave was subject to the execution of the plaintiffs in the writ. The jury returned a verdict that the slave was liable to the execution. The court made a decree, that the property was liable to the execution, and rendered judgment against the claimant and the obligors in her bond, for ten per cent, damages on the amount claimed in the writ, that amount being less than the estimated value of the slave, upon whom the execution had been levied.
The proceedings upon the trial were not so precisely formal as they should have been; but because it does not appear that any injury has resulted to any party concerned, the judgment of the court below is affirmed.
We have made no comments upon the refusal of the district judge to grant a new trial upon the application of the claimant of the property, because the application did not show sufficient merits to authorize the granting of a new trial.
Judgment affirmed.