Clinchfield Coal Corp. v. Hayter
Clinchfield Coal Corp. v. Hayter
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The second assignment of error is to the action of the trial court in admitting in evidence a certain plat and blue print and certain drawings over the objection of the defendant, and in overruling the defendant’s motion to strike the same from the evidence. Plaintiff and defendant claimed under a common grantor but the plaintiff held the older deed and hence the superior title to the land within his boundaries,' but there was a dispute between them, as to the true location of the beginning corner of the plaintiff’s title and the next succeeding corner, and the plaintiff also claimed that the defendant had ignored some of the calls
The plat and blue print had been made by a surveyor, Thacker, in 1910, three years before the present controversy arose. Thacker was not examined as a witness in the case, but the plaintiff testifies that the map was correct “according to the records” and he thought was correct, though he admitted on cross-examination that he did not see Thacker make the map, was not present when he located the lines on the map, he was not a surveyor, and did not know how to use a compass. As to his own drawings the plaintiff further testified that he made the drawings aforesaid, and copied them from the Thacker map, and time and again testified that his drawings were correct (although he did not run the lines nor locate them with a compass) and truly represented the location of the points in dispute. With his own title deeds before him and also the deed under which the defendant claims, and reading the calls of his deeds he pointed out the location on the drawings of each of the disputed calls and also of the triangle cut off by the omission of certain calls in his deed. The drawings made by himself enabled him to give a more graphic description of the disputed points than he could have done by mere oral statements. There is no dispute
It is assigned as error that the court modified two of the instructions offered by the defendant and refused to give them except as modified. The error, if any, is not pointed out; but even if adequately assigned, no error was committed in making the change. The modification was slight and simply applied the instructions to the evidence in the case.
The refusal of the trial court to give certain instructions tendered by the defendant relating to the duty of the plaintiff to minimize his damages constitutes the sixth assignment of error. This has already been sufficiently dealt with.
The judgment of the trial court will be affirmed.
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Clinchfield Coal Corporation v. Hayter
- Cited By
- 5 cases
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- Syllabus
- 1. Appeal and Error — Conflicting Evidence — Rule as to Reversal. —In an action for damages for cutting and injuring trees, defendant denied cutting any trees, and while admitting the branding of a number of trees denied that any injury resulted from the branding. There was a sharp conflict in the evidence on this point, and also as to the value of the trees alleged to have been cut. Held: That, while the decided preponderance of the evidence appeared from the record to be with the defendant as to the damages sustained by the plaintiff, the Supreme Court of Appeals could not interfere with the verdict and judgment of the trial court, as it was the province of the jury to weigh the evidence on these subjects and under the circumstances it cannot be said that the verdict was without evidence to sustain it, or is so plainly contrary to the evidence that the Supreme Court of Appeals ought to interfere. 2. Appeal and Error — Final Judgments and Decrees — Petition Showing Judgment to he a Final Judgment. — A petition for a writ of error spoke of the judgment as a certain judgment, rendered at a certain time in favor of plaintiff against defendant, instead of a final judgment. By reference to the record it appeared that the only judgment entered by the court at that time in favor of the plaintiff against the defendant was in fact a final judgment. Held: That there was no merit in a motion to dismiss the writ of error on the ground that the petition did not show that the judgment complained of was a final judgment. 3. Bill op Particulars — Time of Filing — Discretion of Trial Court —Appeal and Error — Reversal—Section 6331, Code of 1919.— On motion of defendant, plaintiff was required to file a bill of particulars. The case was a proper one for a bill of particulars, but the order of the court was not complied with. At the trial the court, over the objection of defendant, permitted plaintiff to file the bill of particulars. Defendant was not, and could not have been, injured by permitting the bill of particulars to be filed at the time at which it was filed. Held: That some discretion must be left to the trial courts in matters of this kind, apd where it can be seen from the record that no injury could have resulted to the defendant from the failure to file the bill of particulars earlier, the ruling of the lower court will not be set aside. Moreover, in view of section 6331 of the Code of 1919, in regard to reversals by the Supreme Court of Appeals, a reversal would not have been warranted on this point. 4. Documentary Evidence — Maps—Verification.—It is not necessary that' the correctness of a map or drawing should be shown by the person who made it. That fact may be shown by any competent witness who knows it. The map or drawing does not prove itself by mere production, but any witness who knows the object represented may testify that the map, or drawing, correctly represents his idea of such object, and when he has so testified, the map or drawing may be received in evidence. Witnesses often make drawings while testifying to illustrate the relative location of objects, and this is always permissible. 5. Trees and Timber — Action for Cutting and Injuring Trees — Title of Plaintiff. — Where plaintiff, in an action for cutting and damaging trees, showed a common title in the immediate grantors of the plaintiff and defendant, respectively, and that the plaintiff’s deed, which was duly recorded, was prior in point of time to that of the defendant, this was a sufficient showing of true title in the plaintiff to entitle him to recover. 6. Damages — Duty of Minimizing Damages — Knowledge of Effect of Injury. — The duty of a plaintiff to minimize his consequential damages resulting from the wrongful act of the defendant is not arbitrarily imposed in all cases, but only where it is reasonable and can be performed at trifling expense, or with reasonable exertion. And there can be no such duty where the injured party does not know and is not chargeable with notice that consequential damages are likely to ensue from the wrongful act. 7. New Trials — Excessive Damages — Case at Bar. — In the instant case, an action for damages for cutting and injuring trees, the trial court did not err in refusing to set aside a verdict for plaintiff for $400 as excessive, where defendant admitted branding 135 trees on plaintiff’s land by mistake, and there was conflict in the evidence as to the amount of the resulting damages, and the value of the trees cut and removed. 8. Trees and Timber — Trespass—Branding Trees on Another’s Land. — Where defendant, in an action for cutting and injuring trees, admitted branding 135 trees on plaintiff’s land by mistake, this admission entitled plaintiff to a judgment for some amount, as it was a trespass on the plaintiff’s land. 9. Witnesses — Credibility—Question of Fact. — The credibility of witnesses is a question for the jury.