Hood v. Link
Hood v. Link
Opinion of the Court
delivered the Opinion of the Court.
This action, on the case, was brought by Link against Flood, administrator with the will annexed of Bradford, to recover damages for an alleged fraud in the sale of a slave. Upon a verdict finding damages for the plaintiff, ajudg'ment was rendered against the defendant to be levied debonis iestatoris; but at the next succeeding term of the Court the judgment ivas, on motion of the plaintiff, amended by the declaration so as to be personal against the defendant, who seeks, by writ of error, the reversal of the last judgment.
In considering the case as thus presented, two questions arise: 1st, Is the action brought against the defendant in his personal and not in his representative character, so that a judgment in the latter character was inappropriate? and, 2d, If the defendant is sued in his individual capacity only, was the judgment de bonis testaioris, amendable at a subsequentterm as a clerical misprision?
1. Although both the writ and declaration style the defendant “William S. Hood, administrator with the will annexed of Benjamin Bradford, dec’d.and the words “administrator, &c.” or “adm’r. as aforesaid,” are added wherever he is mentioned in the declaration, this circumstance, as has been frequently decided in actions ex contractu against executors and administrators, founded on their own acts, is by no means decisive of an intention to charge the defendant in his representative character, and such additional words will be taken as mere description of the person when a personal liability is shown in the declaration, unless the intention to charge him in his representative character be otherwise unequivocally demonstrated.
In this case the fraud alleged is strictly and emphatically a personal act, for which the wrong doer is unques
2. And as it has been often held that a personal judgment, rendered in a case where, upon the declaration, it should be against the assets only, is' amendable as a clerical misprision, so we think the error in this case, of entering the judgment at first against the assets in the defendant’s hands as administrator, when upon the declaration it should have been against his own estate, was a clerical misprision, and as such, amendable by the declation, and properly amended at a subsequent term.
Wherefore, the judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.