Lowe v. Miller
Lowe v. Miller
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
It seems to the Court that the agreement between Joshua Lowe and Wilson Lowe in the bill of exceptions mentioned, is not to be treated as a lease from the former to the latter, rendering rent in kind, inasmuch as the reservation of the one half of the crop was not incident to the reversion, and consequently gave no right of distress. But that it is to be regarded as a contract between the parties thereto, by which, with the license of Zadoc Lowe, the owner of the land, given for both a good and a valuable consideration, they became, for the period of a year, associated in the tillage thereof,
It seems further to the Court, that the appropriation by Miller of the whole of the crop of corn to his own use, against the consent of Joshua Lowe, was a violation of the rights of the latter, for which he was entitled to redress; and, without deciding whether, under these circumstances, a special action on the case is a proper remedy, it seems clear to the Court that he may maintain trover; which action lies for one tenant in common of a personal chattel against his cotenant for a destruction or sale thereof by the latter, and consequently, for the appropriation thereof to his exclusive use, where, as in the present case, the property is of such a nature as to be necessarily destroyed by the use thereof by himself or others claiming under him.
It seems, therefore, to the Court, that the Circuit Court erred in instructing the jury, that if they should believe from the evidence that the defendant in the action purchased the crop of corn from Wilson and Sarah Lowe for a bona fide consideration, the plaintiff in the action could not recover therein.
It is therefore considered by the Court, that the judgment of the Circuit Court is erroneous, and that the same be reversed and annulled, and that the plaintiff in error recover against- the defendant in error his costs expended in the prosecution of his writ of error and supersedeas here. And it is further considered, that the
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