62 Minn. 99 | Minn. | 1895
Action of claim and delivery for the recovery of certain pine logs cut from state lands, viz. section 36, township 19, range 44, which were in the possession of the defendant, at Minneapolis, at the commencement of the action.
The eomplaint alleges that the plaintiff is the owner of the logs, and entitled to the immediate possession of them; that the defendant wrongfully detains them; and that they are of the value of $25,-000. The answer admits and alleges that the logs were cut by it from section 36 under and by virtue of a permit so to do, regular on its face, made, issued, and delivered to one Matthews, upon a sale to him of the pine timber on such section by the commissioner of the state land office, and duly assigned to it by Matthews, with the approval of such commissioner, who extended the time limited in the permit in which such timber might be cut and removed; that the defendant, in strict compliance with the terms of such permit, in good faith, without any notice or knowledge of any fact invalidating such permit, and relying thereon, cut and removed such logs from such section, and transported them to Minneapolis, where they were of the value of $7 per 1,000 feet, but, without the labor and expenditure of the defendant in so cutting and transporting them,
Upon the trial the plaintiff offered evidence tending to establish a prima facie case, and rested. Thereupon the defendant introduced the permit, assignment, and extension thereof. It also offered evidence tending to establish all the allegations of its answer as to its good faith, and reliance upon the permit in cutting the timber, and, further, that it expended the sum of $15,000 in so cutting and transporting the logs; that it obtained a redelivery of the logs to itself by giving the bond required by law; and that the logs, before the commencement of the trial of the action, had been sawed into lumber, as the most practical way of preserving them, and the lumber sold, or destroyed by fire. The court rejected this evidence, on the objection of the plaintiff, and' defendant excepted. The plaintiff, in rebuttal, offered evidence tending to prove the allegations of the reply as to the invalidity of the permit, and particularly that such pine was not subject to sale, and that the sale thereof was prohibited by law, because it had never been appraised as required by law, and that the board or tribunal appointed by law for such purpose had never determined that a sale of such timber was necessary in order to protect the state from loss. The court, upon the objection of the defendant, rejected this evidence, and instructed the jury to return a verdict for the defendant, to which ruling and instruction the plaintiff excepted, and from an order denying its motion for a new trial it prosecutes this appeal.
This record presents two questions for our decision: (1) Do the facts which the plaintiff offered to prove render the permit absolutely void? (2) If so, can the permit be assailed collaterally by proof of such facts in this action ?
1. The first question is answered in the affirmative, for the reason that, assuming the existence of the facts offered to be proved, the commissioner had no jurisdiction to sell the pine in question, or to issue the pérmit.
These provisions are plain and specific. There is no room for misconstruction or misunderstanding, for no layman capable of reading the English language can mistake their meaning. They declare the general purpose and policy of the state to keep its growing pine timber as an investment, and therefore the sale of any
2. The second question must also be answered in the affirmative. This conclusion logically follows from what we have said in answering the first question.
The respondent claims that the permit in this case, as regards-immunity from collateral attack, is similar to a patent. Conceding, without so deciding, that the permit is similar to a patent, still the fact remains that the commissioner was absolutely without any jurisdiction or authority to sell the timber in question. Such being the case, it may be attacked collaterally in this action, for a patent may thus be assailed when there is, as in this case, an absolute want of power in the officer to issue it McKinney v. Bode, 33 Minn. 450, 23 N. W. 851; Sherman v. Buick, 93 U. S. 209. The commissioner in this case, as we have seen, had no jurisdiction to determine the existence of the facts upon which alone a sale of pine timber could be authorized, or power to make any such sale. After the board, having jurisdiction in the premises, acts, then the commis
3. It follows that the evidence offered by the state upon the trials which was ruled out, was both material and competent, and that for this error a new trial must be granted.
With reference to such trial, and to avoid a further appeal in this action, we deem it proper to state that we are of the opinion, and so decide, that the court also erred in rejecting the evidence of .the respondent as to its good faith, and reliance upon the permit, in cutting the logs in question. This evidence was competent and-material upon the question of the alternative value of the logs. It is true that an owner of personal property does not lose his property, or the right to reclaim it, because another person takes it away without legal right, although he may change its form, and materially add to its value by fitting it for and transporting it to a favorable market. In such a case it logically follows that the owner is still legally entitled to follow his property, and whether he brings replevin, to recover it in specie, or trover or trespass, for its value, he has a prima facie legal right to recover the property in its changed form, or its value at the time and place of demand for its possession, which would include its enhanced value by reason of the labor and expenditures of the defendant upon it. But whereb the defendant is not a willful trespasser, but takes the property honestly believing, and having good reason for such belief, that he/ has a legal right so to do, and has increased its value by his laborl and money, the injustice of requiring him to pay the owner, in ad-) dition to the original value of the property, the value of his labor / and expenditures also, is so flagrant that courts have adopted a ; modified rule in such cases. This modification is based upon the / theory that both parties have an interest in the property, or, itíi
- It is true that in trespass and trover the owner voluntarily relinquishes the right to the property in specie, and in replevin he does not; but, in principle, the same equitable rule applies to an action of replevin, for a party ought not to be permitted, by a selection of his form of action, to defeat the ends of justice, and appropriate the labor of another, to which he has no moral or equitable right. To permit him to do so wmuld be a confession of weakness on the part of courts, or of a defect in the laws, and a reproach to the administration of justice, — a sacrifice of substantial justice to technicalities. A change in the form of the action from trover to replevin cannot change or extinguish the relative rights of the parties in the property. The difficulty of applying the rule to an action of replevin is the only reason that can be urged for not doing so, for, on principle,
Whatever difficulties there may be in applying this rule of damages in actions of trespass and trover to an ordinary action of replevin, there are none in the case at bar, where the defendant re-bonded the property, and there cannot be a return of it to the plaintiff, in any event. Such being the case, if the defendant establishes its good faith in cutting the timber, the alternative value would be the value of the stumpage, with interest thereon to the date of the verdict. If the defendant does not establish its good faith, the alternative value will be the value of the logs at the place of demand, —Minneapolis,-—-with interest from date of demand. Herdic v. Young, 55 Pa. St. 176; Single v. Schneider, 24 Wis. 299; Hungerford v. Redford, 29 Wis. 345.
Order reversed, and a new trial granted.