United States Circle Swing Co. v. Reynolds
United States Circle Swing Co. v. Reynolds
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This was an action of replevin for an amusement device known as a circle swing. The suit was brought by the United States Circle Swing Company against Annette Reynolds and Arthur Frothingham, trading as the Rocky Glen Park Company, a partnership. On June 8, 1906, Annette Reynolds, as the agent of her brother, William B. Reynolds, filed an affidavit that the property replevied belonged to him; and upon this petition, sworn to by Annette Reynolds, the said William B. Reynolds was permitted to intervene as party defendant. Thereafter he filed an affidavit of defense in which he claimed to have bought the property replevied at a landlord’s sale, and that he was at that time the owner of the said property by virtue of the title so acquired. When the case was called for trial William B. Reynolds, by Annette Reynolds, his attorney in fact, presented a petition, asking leave to amend his former affidavit of defense so as to limit his ownership to a small portion of the apparatus, consisting of six cars. His claim to this much was conceded by the plaintiffs. Upon the trial the court directed the jury to be sworn as to William B. Reynolds alone
It is also contended that the court below erred in permitting the jury to be sworn as to William B. Reynolds alone, for the reason that Annette Reynolds and Arthur Frothingham, the original defendants, had filed what was alleged to be a plea in abatement, in which they averred that the suit was brought in the name of a fictitious person, and that there was no such corporation as the United States Circle Swing Company. This was not a plea in abatement, for its effect would be, not merely to abate this particular suit, but to destroy the right
In the eighteenth assignment of error, complaint is made of the ruling of the court below as to the right of the plaintiffs to bring this action, without being properly registered under the Act of April 22, 1874, P. L. 108. But the question does not seem to have been raised in the affidavit of defense, and was not apparently an issue in the case. But in so far as the facts of this case go, they disclose nothing which would forbid the plaintiff, as a foreign corporation, to maintain an action in the courts of Pennsylvania, to recover its personal property. William B. Reynolds who claimed and retained the property, had no contract relations with the plaintiffs, and he would therefore have no standing to object that the plaintiff corporation was doing business in this state, without having complied with the registration act. This principle is clearly set forth in King Optical Co. v. Royal Insurance Co., 24 Pa. Superior Ct. 527.
It is further contended that objectionable remarks made by
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- Syllabus
- Replevin — Parties—Intervention—Trial—Pleading. 1. Where in an action of replevin by a corporation against two defendants, a third person intervenes, first claiming all of the property replevied, but subsequently claiming only a small portion which is conceded, and the defendants file only a plea to the effect that plaintiff is not a corporation, the trial court commits no error in directing the jury to be sworn as to the intervenor only, and in instructing the jury that no question of title is involved, and that their duty is simply to determine the value of the goods replevied. In such a case the plea filed by defendants was a plea in bar, and the case was therefore at issue only between the plaintiff and the intervenor. There was no verdict or judgment against the defendants and they had no standing to appeal. Corporations — Foreign corporations — Registration—Replevin—Act of April 22, 1874, P. L. 108. 2. A foreign corporation need not be registered under the Act of April 22, 1874, P. L. 108, to enable it to maintain an action of replevin in this state to recover personal property which had been taken from it by one who had no contractual relation with the company. Practice, C. P. — Objectionable remarks of counsel — Discretion of court. 3. A judgment will not be reversed because of alleged objectionable remarks of counsel, where it appears that the trial judge instructed the jury to disregard such remarks, and in his opinion refusing a new trial, states that he believes the jury were not influenced as to the amount of the verdict by the alleged offensive remarks.