Fleming v. Bevan
Fleming v. Bevan
Opinion of the Court
— From a careful examination of the evidence, given on the part of the plaintiff on- the trial of the cause, in the court below, we cannot discover the slightest tendency in it, going to prove or show such right in the plaintiff to the tea in question, as could entitle him to recover in this action. The evidence given by him only went to show, at most, that by his agreement, bearing date the 28th day of June, 1839, made with John McCrea, the owner of the ship Venice, by whom the plaintiff was employed to take charge of the ship as the captain and commander thereof, he acquired an interest to the extent of $5000 in the profit or loss on the shipment made in the ship, then in the Delaware river, on her voyage by way of Valparaiso to Canton. If a profit were made on the shipment, then the plaintiff was to participate therein; but if a loss should arise therefrom instead of a profit, then he was to bear his proportion of it. But from the agreement taken per se, it does not appear that he was to have a right, in any event, of either a special or general property in the shipment of the vessel, either outward or homeward, or in the tea in question. Neither can we perceive, from any of the other testimony given in the cause, that it was the intenLion of McCrea, or of any of those who had an ownership in the cargo, of which the tea in question formed a part, that he should have a right of property, or any other right to the tea, that would entitle him to the possession of it, so as to enable him to recover it from the defendants. It does not appear from the evidence, that McCrea ever consented that the plaintiff should have a right of property in the tea, or even the possession of it. On the contrary, it appears that McCrea sold part of the tea to Francis H. Tiers, in the month following the arrival of the vessel, saying it was his son’s tea. Nor does it appear that the defendants ever acknowledged or admitted any right or claim of the plaintiff to the tea; they, rvhen spoken to on the subject, said, that the plaintiff had no interest whatever in the shipment unless there should be enough to cover all their advances, and
We therefore think the judgment ought to be affirmed, and accordingly affirm it.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.