Colorado Mortgage & Investment Co. v. Messemer
Colorado Mortgage & Investment Co. v. Messemer
Opinion of the Court
This suit was commenced in a justice’s court, went thence to the county court, and now comes to this court by appeal.
The statute limits the sum total of a constable’s fees, in any civil action, in counties of the first class, to $6.00, exclusive of commissions on moneys collected. Session Laws, 1891, p. 219. Arapahoe county, in which the judgment was recovered, and the writ was to be executed, was a county of the first class. Therefore, for the plaintiff’s services in the case as an officer, there being no money to collect, Iris fees could not exceed $6.00. But the service and execution of the writ of restitution did not require the removal or tearing down of buildings, and the performance of work of that kind was no part of the duty of the plaintiff as constable. Whatever he did beyond taking, and delivering to the company, the possession of the land, was done, not in an official, but in a private, capacity, and to enable him to recover for the work, he must show an employment for the purpose. This he undertook to do. He testified to a conversation with Edward L. Dixon, the company’s attorney in the unlawful detainer suit, and to conversations with Mr. Morris and Mr. Gilmore, who appear to have been representatives of the company, and from those conversations he inferred his authority to do what be did.
The court stated to the jury that the plaintiff alleged that he made a contract with the officers and agents of the defendant, by the terms of which he was to move from the premises
The plaintiff testified that when he received the writ of restitution, Mr. Dixon told him that the company had had a great deal of trouble with those people on the land, had been trying to get them off about three years, and wanted them off; that it wanted them moved, and wanted possession of the land no matter what the cost might be. In one portion of his testimony the witness undertook to give the exact words used by Mr. Dixon. They were as follows:
“We have had a great deal of trouble with this man, and we want to get him off the premises; we want to get his furniture off, we want to get his stuff off, we want to get possession of the land.” Mr. Dixon testified that he never instructed the plaintiff to remove any building, that he suggested that the dwelling had better be torn down, but that the plaintiff had better call on Mr. Morris before executing*364 the writ. He also said that he was not aware that there was any other building on the land. The only authority in the premises which the plaintiff had from Mr. Dixon was derived from that one conversation. He was authorized by the writ to eject Lee from the premises, and remove his belongings from the dwelling he occupied; but nothing stated to him by Dixon can be construed into an employment to tear down and remove the other eleven buildings. Neither was any employment by Morris or Gilmore to tear down the buildings shown. The plaintiff’s testimony on that subject was that, feeling some sympathy for Mrs. Lee, he went to Morris and Gilmore and asked permission to remove the dwelling instead of tearing it down; that Gilmore inquired what the additional cost of removing it would be, and he replied $8.00 or $10.00; that he then asked Gilmore where he should put the building, and Gilmore designated a spot about one hundred.feet from where he stood; whereupon he suggested that the owner of that ground might not permit him to leave it there, and Gilmore said, “Burn it up if you want to.” The witness further said that the owner of the ground one hundred feet off, objected to the building being placed there, and he then took it to a distance of half a mile and left it. So far as appears, nothing whatever was said of any disposition to be made of the other buildings. In respect to the dwelling, Gilmore testified that the agreed price between him and the plaintiff for its removal was exactly $8.00, and the plaintiff, when questioned on the subject, declined to say that the fact was not in accordance with Gilmore’s statement. According to the plaintiff’s own testimony, he not only had no authority from the defendant to tear down the eleven other buildings, but he had none for removing the house to the place where he took it, and according to the undenied statement of Gilmore, he was to receive only $8.00 for its removal, if he should remove it at all. We should say from the plaintiff’s testimony, and the undisputed portions of the testimony given for the defendant, that the plaintiff was entitled to judgment for the $8.00 together*365 with, his legal fees for executing the writ, not exceeding $6.00. Before the trial in the justice’s court, the defendant tendered him $14.00, and kept the tender good in the county court. In reality there was no question for the jury to pass upon, and the court should have directed a verdict in the plaintiff’s favor for $14.00, and rendered judgment for that sum with the costs which had accrued before the trial in the justice’s court. But the defendant did not ask the court to direct a verdict, and so far as the instruction mentioned was concerned, contented itself with an objection. The objection was well taken. The instruction was grossly erroneous, and the judgment is reversed.
Reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.