Ward v. Odem
Ward v. Odem
Opinion of the Court
This is a suit instituted by ap-pellee against appellant to recover damages for the conversion of certain parts of a gasoline traction engine. Appellant filed a plea of privilege to be sued in Bexar county, general and special exceptions, general denial, and special answer. The cause was tried by jury and resulted in a verdict and judgment for appellee in the sum of $350.
The charge complained of in the seventh assignment of error is not subject to objections urged to it in the proposition thereunder, and it is overruled. There was nothing in the conduct of appellee that justified the taking or use of the parts of the machinery. Appellant knew that he did not authorize or acquiesce in the taking or the use of the parts of his engine.
The facts present a case of conversion by temporary use, and the property was returned by appellant after several months, and it does not seem that the property was injured, and appellee had the right to recover the value of the use of his machine during the time he was deprived of it. Sedgwick, Damages, §§ 494, 506; Moore v. King, 4 Tex. Civ. App. 397, 23 S. W. 284. The case last cited was well considered, and the court held: “The very facts of this case is an apt illustration of the propriety in some cases of extending the measure of damages beyond that prescribed by the general rule. In this case the plaintiff was deprived of a wagon worth about $70, with a use per day, as shown by the evidence, of the reasonable value of about 75 cents. The trespass was committed on the 4th day of January, 1892, and the judgment was rendered on February 26, 1892. Giving the plaintiff the value of the wagon, with legal interest on that amount, would certainly not be compensation for the loss sustained by reason of the wrong committed. The use that he is deprived of is almost as valuable as the thing itself; and that value of the use with the property itself is conferred upon the wrongful trespasser, if the plaintiff is confined in his recovery to the value and interest. Such a rule would not only deprive the plaintiff of his property, but would permit a trespasser to profit by his own wrong, and it would afford a profitable enterprise to such wrongdoers in obtaining wrongful possession of property especially valuable for its use.” See, also, Waller v. Hail, 46 S. W. 82; Railey v. Hopkins, 60 Tex. Civ. App. 600, 110 S. W. 779. Applying the rule set forth to this case, and the charge, which allowed the jury to find for the value of the use of the traction engine for the period of time that the necessary parts remained out of the engine without the fault of appellee, was correct. The evidence was *636 uncontroverted tliat the pieces remained out of tlie engine for some time, through the fault of appellant, and the court had the authority to assume the existence of that fact, and also that it was without fault on the part of appellee.
There is no merit in the assignments from 10 to 16, inclusive, and they are overruled. The seventeenth and eighteenth assignments are disposed of by the rules laid down in the authorities herein cited as to the measure of damages.
The judgment is affirmed.
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