19 Barb. 664 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1855
The plaintiff was most clearly entitled to recover of the defendants the enhanced value of the timber in question as manufactured into shingles. (7 Cowen, 95. 3 Comst. 379, 5 John. 348, 349. 10 id. 237, § Wend. 508. 6 John.
The legal rule is, that an objection which does not go entirely to the merits of the action must be made at 'the trial. (4 Hill, 274. 5 Wend. 301. 13 id. 288.) The rule is a familiar one, that objections which might be obviated upon the trial, must be made then, or they cannot be raised afterwards. (16 Wend. 522. 20 id 210. 1 Cowen, 622. 6 Hill, 407. 17 Wend. 87. 15 id. 502. 1 Denio, 281. 3 id. 114, 592.) If the defendants had raised this objection upon the trial, the plaintiff might have procured an amendment of his complaint, or he might have adduced proof of the value of the timber in its original state, and confined his claim to that. The only other point in the case, raised upon this appeal, is the nonjoinder of Fairchild, the other tenant in common, as a plaintiff in the action. The rule is well settled, that tenants in common, of real estate, must join in actions'for trespass upon lands or for a nuisance to the land. (13 John, 286. 15 id. 479. 8 Cowen, 304. 6 John. 108. 8 id. 151. 11 Mass. R. 409.) So they must join in trespass or trover for taking or converting personal property. (1 John, 471. 1 Hill, 234. 1 Wend. 380. 8 Miss. R. 522, 11 Shep. R. 222.) The 119th section of the code preserves the same rule as to parties. The rule was settled under our former system of pleadings, that if one of several tenants in common sue where the others ought to join, the defendant must plead the nonjoinder in abatement, or it could not be a ground of defeating the action. (1 John. 471. 6 id. 108. 8 id. 151. 11 Mass. R. 419. 1 Wend. 380, 385, 386.) The defendant could not make this objection available by way of motion for a nonsuit, "motion in arrest, or writ of error. (6 John. 766. 1 Bos. & Pull. 74. 1 Wend. 380, 385, 386.) It is claimed and insisted
Gray, Shankland and Mason, Justices.]
If I am right in the views above expressed, it follows that both the judgment of the county court, and that of the justice’s court in this case, should be reversed. If my brethren think, however, that this objection can only be raised by plea in abatement, or by a notice accompanying the answer, in the nature of such plea, then the judgment must be affirmed.
Gray, J. concurred.
Shankland, J. dissented.
Judgments reversed.