Harris v. Brummell
Harris v. Brummell
Opinion of the Court
— Plaintiff and defendant were neighboring fai’mers in Grundy county. The one sued the other before a justice of the peace 'in damages — -first, for the alleged killing of two brood sows, and, second, for throwing down a certain fence. Plaintiff recovered before the justice, but at the trial in the circuit court, where defendant took the case by appeal, there was a verdict and judgment for defendant and plaintiff brings the case here by writ of error.
The principal point in the case relates to the killing of two fine brood sows belonging to the plaintiff. From the evidence it would seem that defendant found the two sows — one having six young pigs and the other heavy with pig and likely to drop them shortly — in his (the defendant’s) cornfield. The defendant and his son set about to drive the hogs to his> the defendant’s, house, nearly a mile away. It seems to have been a hot day, so much so that the worry of the drive exhausted the sows before arriving at defendant’s house and they died from overheating. This was what the testimony introduced'in plaintiff’s behalf tended to prove, and it is all that need now be stated foi\a proper disposition of this appeal.
On this phase of the case the plaintiff asked instructions which in effect conceded defendant’s right to drive the hogs out of his premises, but further stipulated that “if he attempted to captufe, restrain or drive said hogs to his, defendant’s own lot or inclosure, he did so at his peril; and if in so attempting to capture, restrain or drive said hogs to his own inclosure, said hogs were or became overheated and by reason thereof died, then defendant must respond in damages.” The trial judge refused this instruction,. and another of like tenor, and gave one of his own motion, together with others requested by defendant, to the effect, that if defendant exercised at the time reasonable and ordinary care in removing the hogs
It follows then from these considerations that the court submitted the case to the jury on an improper theory, and that the plaintiff’s instruction before quoted should have been given.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.