Carroll v. McKale
Carroll v. McKale
Opinion of the Court
This is an action in replevin for a Columbia bicycle, taken frQm possession of defendant, who, as deputy sheriff, seized the same on a writ of execution in favor of Fred Haines, and running against the property of one Smoyer. The issue was whether the property was the property of Smoyer at the time of its seizure, or the property of plaintiff. The circuit judge directed a verdict for plaintiff, and the question is whether there was any testimony tending to support the title of Smoyer.
There was testimony on the part of the defendant which tended to show that Smoyer was the owner of an equity in a piece of property in the city of Lansing, which was considered worth $130. Plaintiff is a real-estate agent. Smoyer employed him to make a trade of his equity in the
This case is a very peculiar one. It does appear on the record that, after the commencement of the replevin suit in this case, the Crescent wheel was tendered to the plaintiff. But was this necessary in the first instance? Under the theory of the defendant, Mr. Smoyer became the absolute owner of the Columbia bicycle the moment it was received into the possession of plaintiff. How has he been divested of that ownership? Does it lie with plaintiff to say: “ True, the property was yours absolutely. By a trick, I placed in your possession a piece of property which was not yours. Thereby you have become the conditional owner of the property in your possession, and I am the conditional owner of your property, and this without your knowledge or consent.” We are cited to no case which sustains this ruling. It is not like a case where there is a contract by which one vests a title in another, or a right to possession, and which contract may be avoided for fraud. In this case there was never a purpose, for one moment, to vest
The judgment will be reversed, and a new trial ordered.
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