Hoffman v. Wilson
Concurring in Part
(concurring in part, but dissenting in part). I concur in the view that as to the five suites of bedroom furniture the plaintiff below was not entitled to recover. Having taken away the defendant’s five suites of bedroom furniture, and substituted therefor five other bedroom suites of her own, Miss Wilson (the plaintiff) is to be held to have sanctioned the use by Hoffman (the defendant) of the substituted suites of furniture until she returned his suites, or at least offered to return them. Not having done this, the plaintiff was in no position to demand possession of the bedroom suites. Therefore quoad hoc a defense was shown. But I am not able to see by what rule of law or upon what just principle the defendant could retain the other separate and distinct personal property belonging to the plaintiff against her demand merely because of her action in respect to the bedroom fur
I am for reversing the judgment of the court below not only upon the assignment respecting the bedroom suites, but also upon other assignments touching the admission of evidence and the instructions as to what constituted conversion, but I would reverse, with the award of a venire facias de novo.
Opinion of the Court
This writ of error has brought up the record in an action of tort in which Effie C. Wilson was plaintiff and Samuel D. Hoffman and Francis A. Canfield were defendants. The plaintiff declared in trespass, and also, by separate count, in trover. It appeared, however, that the charge of trespass could not be sustained, and that a joint conversion by the'two defendants could not be established. Hence the case was properly tried as one of trover merely, and as against Samuel D. Hoffman only. The chattels alleged to have been converted consisted of household goods, which were contained in a house in Atlantic City, N. J., known as* “Hawthorne Inn.” The plaintiff below had been put in possession of this house by a certain Mrs. Hartley under an agreement between them, the particulars of which are unimportant. An action of ejectment for its possession was then pending by Hoffman against Mrs. Hartley, in which Hoffman subsequently obtained judgment, and upon execution on that judgment Effie C. Wilson was evicted. Prior thereto she had removed five suites of Hoffman’s bedroom furniture from the house, and had put other furniture in their place; and for the latter, although she had not restored the former, she was allowed to recover. But, in our opinion, these facts were, as to the whole case, conclusive against her. Trover will not lie for anything which the plaintiff has not the immediate right to possess, and one who has not only voluntarily placed her goods upon the land of another, but has also taken therefrom goods of the landowner, has no right to reclaim her own without returning his. The question is not as to whether one trespass or .conversion may be set off against another. It may be conceded that this cannot be done; but the law of torts deals with duties and rights as correlates, and to us it seems clear that the return of the defendant’s goods was a duty which the plaintiff was bound to dis
The second specification avers that the Circuit Court erred in overruling the motion of the defendant below for binding instructions in his favor, and, as the views we have expressed sustain that specification, they completely dispose of the case, and no other of the errors assigned need be considered.
The judgment is reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- HOFFMAN v. WILSON
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Trover — Right to Maintain — Correlative Duties. Plaintiff was evicted from a house occupied by her as a boarding house under a judgment for possession recovered by defendant, who took possession of her furniture therein. From certain of the bedrooms she had removed furniture owned by defendant and substituted her own. Held, that she could not maintain trover for any part of her own furniture until she had returned or offered to return that owned by defendant. Acheson, Circuit Judge, concurs so far as relates to the articles substituted for those of defendant, but dissents as to the remainder.