Gifford v. Brownell
Gifford v. Brownell
Opinion of the Court
The instructions given to the jury at the trial were undoubtedly correct, as an abstract statement of a legal principle.
But the evidence showed that the defendant on one day took twenty tons of the seaweed, and on another day six tons, and carried it all away. The facts therefore did not present a case of any mere inaccuracy of division of the seaweed, such as the instructions given to the jury suppose; or of a rightful taking, and a subsequent failure to make a proper disposition of it. It was a continuous taking without any regard to the terms of the license. The license was to take it, and put one load on his own heap, and one on Gifford’s, alternately. This was a conditional license; and when the condition was wholly disregarded, the license ceased; and the jury should have been so instructed. Undoubtedly if he took it under the license, the action could not be maintained; but the difficulty is, that he would not have taken it under the license, in the manner in which he did take it. The attention of the jury not having been called to this consideration, we think the instructions given were not sufficient, nor all that the case required; and that there should be a new trial.
Exceptions sustained.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- George Gifford & others v. Abraham Brownell
- Status
- Published