Pogue v. Shotwell
Pogue v. Shotwell
Opinion of the Court
delivered the Opinion of the Court.
On the 19th of December, 1807, Bodley, Hughes and Pogue sold and conveyed to Shotwell, two hundred and nineteen acres of land, supposed to be included in a tract of ten thousand a.cres, granted to Tibbs and ■Crutcher, whose title had passed to the vendors. On the 28th of March, 1811, Shotwell reconveyed to the same persons, “all the land that might be found to interfere between a survey” of four hundred acres, in the name of íohn Mosby, and the two hundred and nine
Afterwards, not being able, in consequence of doubts respecting the true position of Mosby’s four hundred acre survey, to agree as to the extent of the interference between that survey and the two hundred and nineteen .acres — the one party contending for about one hundred and forty three acres, and the other for about thirteen acres, — Shotwell sued Pogue on his covenant; and, in August, 1827, Shotwell having died, and the suit having been revived in the name of his administrator, judgment was rendered against Pogue, for seven hundred and thirty five dollars, in damages.
To enjoin that judgment, Pogue filed a bill in chancery against the administrator and heirs of Shotwell and against Bodley and the heirs of Hughes — alleging that the jury had been grossly mistaken as to the extent of tiie interference for which he had covenanted to'pay ; that fifty acres of that interference, as the jury must have established it, had been conveyed by Shot-well to one Dye, previously to his conveyance to Bodley .& Co., and therefore, to that extent, Shotwell liad no title, and the consideration had failedthat Shotwell liad never surrendered the possession of the land which he had reconveved to Bodley & Co. and that his heirs still retained the possession, although neither .Brown’s deed to him, nor the conveyance by Bodley & Co. to Brown, including the whole of if; that, from his own calculation, upon what he deemed the proper data, he inferred that, assuming, as the jury must have done, one hundred and forty .three acres as the quantity for which he had covenanted to pay four dollars an acre, credit had not been given in the assessment of damages,
The circuit court having perpetuated the injunction for the one hundred and ninety dollars and legal interest thereon from the time of payment, and dissolved it for the residue of the judgment, without making any further or other decree in favor of Pogue, both parties have prosecuted writs of error.
We have been unable to perceive sufficient ground for perpetuating the injunction for the payment of one hundred and ninety dollars, made in 1814. For, although the administrator concurred, in his answer, so far with the calculation exhibited in the bill, as to be induced to admit, as a probable deduction, that the jury had not considered the endorsement on the covenant, of the credit for one hundred and ninety dollars, and therefore had not included it in their estimate of the damages ; nevertheless it is demonstrable, that both parties were mistaken in their conjectural calculations, and that the one hundred and ninety dollar credit must have been allowed'by the jury. It is evident, that the basis of the assessment was a decision lay the jury, that Mosby’s survey of four hundred acres interfered with the two hundred and nineteen acres conveyed by Bodley & Co. to Shotwell, to the extent of one hundred and forty three acres, as contended for by Shotwell in the action at law. It is equally evident th'at, in order to make the amount of. the verdict, (seven hundred and
We are satisfied that, although the verdict may have been grossly and manifestly erroneous in assuming, as must have been done, so great an interference as one hundred and forty three acres, no sufficient ground has been established, or even alleged, for authorizing a revision or modification of the judgment by the chancellor. The only appropriate remedy was an appeal to this court, there being no proof, or satisfactory allegation, that Pogue had not ample opportunity for making all the proper preparation.
Nevertheless, we are of opinion, that Pogue is entitled to some relief in a different mode. Mosby’s survey of four hundred acres, laid down as Pogue insisted, before the jury, it had been originally made and should be, established, and as we too are strongly inclined to think it was made,"and should be settled, includes only about thirteen acres, of the two hundred and nineteen acres conveyed, by Bodley & Co. to Shotwell; which interference, whatevér it may be in quantity, is embraced by the deed from Bodley & Co. to Brown, and the deed from him to Shotwell, and does not include any. part of the fifty acres conveyed by Shotwell to Dye. And consequently, according to this view of the case,
But, laying dowq Mosby’s survey, as the jury must have decided that it should be laid dpwn, so as to produce an interference to the extent of one hundred and forty three acres, it will include a part of the fifty acres, which Shotwell had conveyed to Dye, and a considerable portion of Shotwell’s two hundred and nineteen acres, not embraced by the deed from Bodley & Co. to Brown, when truly applied, and some land also not included in Brown’s deed to Shotwell. If then this be the true position of Mosby’s survey of four hundred acres, it is evident that, as Shotwell reconveyed to Bodley & Co. the whole interference, or, in other words, the one hundred and forty three acres, Shotwell’s representatives should surrender the possession of so much of that quantity as Brown did not convey to him, and so much, also, as Bodley & Co. had not conveyed to Brown, excepting the parcel covered by Shotwell’s conveyance to Dye, previously to his deed to Bodley & Co., and for which, as Shotwell had no title to it, his representatives should account. Whether such be the true position of Mosby’s survey, or whether its proper and actual position, as originally made, will include one hundred and forty three, or only thirteen acres, of the two hundred and nineteen acres conveyed by Bodley & Co. to Shotwell, should not be deemed material in this suit; for, as the administrator has obtained a judgment for damages, for the one hundred and forty three acres, and could not have been entitled to any judgment whatever, unless he had prevailed on the jury to decide, that the. interference was to that extent, he is so far estopped that he should not be permitted to prove that the true interference is only thirteen acres, or other quantity less than one hundred and forty three; and certainly equity could not permit the administrator to coerce the damages adjudged to him for one hundred and forty three acres, and also suffer the heirs to hold the same
It dpes not appear, that Brown had any other available title than that conveyed to him by Bodléy & Co.; nor does it appear, that Shotwell had any other right than that which he derived from Brown and from Bodley & Co. A restitution, or injunction, therefore to the extent which has just been suggested, seems to be but right and equitable, and will only, so far, place the parties in statu quo.
Brown, as lie is no party, will not be affected by this opinion.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.