This case was sent back for retrial on the former appeal on a very palpable point of error, not at all involving the merits of the case, as now presented on this appeal. The court had ruled in effect, that even if the hog was the property of the defendants, still having been taken by them from the plaintiff’s possession by force, the latter might recover against the former its value. This was holding in substance that the plaintiff, who was not the owner, might recover against the defendants, who were the owners, the value of the property, there being no question of pledge or bailment in the case. The judgment was reversed on this sole point. The case comes now before us on other and different questions.
In this ruling there was manifest error ; inasmuch as the plaintiff had no such qiossession of the premises as would entitle him to maintain trespass quaere clausum fregit against the defendants, the heirs-at-law of Simon, deceased, the owner, with whom the agreement with the plaintiff as cropper was made. It was decided in the early case of Bradish v. Schenck (8 John., 151) that the letting of land upon shares, if for a single crop, was no lease of the land, and that the owner alone must bring trespass for breaking the close. This subject has been much discussed in the courts of this ■ State since the decision above cited was made, but the rule there declared has been uniformly followed in subsequent cases, and has been quite recently re-affirmed in the Court of Appeals in Taylor v. Bradley (39 N. Y., 129); and in Harris v. Frink (49 id., 24); see, also, Putnam v. Wise (1 Hill, 243); Haywood v. Miller (3 id., 90); The People v. Fields (1 Lans., 222).
In Harris v. Frink (above cited), Judge Rapallo says:
Judgment and order reversed ; new trial ordered, costs to abide the event.
Judgment and order reversed; new trial granted, costs to abide event.
