Bond v. Quattlebaum
Bond v. Quattlebaum
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
It is now understood to be a settled rule of law, that where a person has been evicted of land, or what amounts to the same thing, when he is deprived of it by a paramount title in another, although there has been no eviction, he is entitled to recover back the purchase money with'interest, and nothing more. There may perhaps be cases, where the rents and profits in the mean time, will take away the claim of the party to interest.
It is only necessary, therefore, to.lay down the rule to see at once that a new trial must be granted in this case. It was found upon a resurvey of the land, that there was left to the defendant a greater quantity of land than he had purchased, notwithstanding all the deductions of which he complains ; so that the verdict in fact, restores to him the whole of the purchase money, gives him more land than he originally expected, and five hundred dollars in addition* Such a verdict, it is obvious, cannot be supported. It is, however, necessary to go somewhat more into a detail of the principies by which, this case is to be governed for the instruction of the court and jury, to whose decision it is again to be submitted. With regard to the first ground of defence, this court are of opinion that by the true construction of the deed, there is no such intersection of the lines of the adjacent tracts, as the defendant supposes. The conveyance of the tractbelonging to Charity Allen and family, as also that of the Livingston tract, calls for land as a boundary with which it is supposed to interfere. Calling for it as a boundary, excludes the idea of running into it. The deduction, therefore, claimed on that account cannot be allowed.
With regard to the third item, the defendant has been more successful. He has shown a subsisting out standing title in Charity Allen and her children, to a part of the
The conjectural loss which may or may not be sustained by reducing the profits of the mill, cannot be taken into the calculation. It would be violating the rule, at first laid down, that the deduction should be made with reference to the value of the land at the time of the sale. The policy of allowing this species of defence, where there has been no eviction, is at least doubtful. If the embarrassments to which it has lead, had been foreseen, it is probable it would never have been introduced. But it has now been too long settled to be questioned. We must take.care, however, to keep it within its hitherto prescribed limits. Consequential damages have never been allowed to be set off in any case. There must be an actual failure of consideration, or the defence is not supported. A danger remote or contingent is not sufficient. So far as the defendant can shew that the object of his purchase has been actually defeated, he is entitled to a deduction, and no farther.
The motion for a new trial1 must be granted.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- J. P. Bond v. John Quattlebaum
- Status
- Published