Craig v. Maupin

• Decision Date: 30 June 1840
• Parties: CRAIG v. MAUPIN.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

6 Mo. 250

CRAIG

v.MAUPIN.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

June Term, 1840.

A finding of fact by the court sitting without a jury is equivalent to a verdict and hence will be disturbed only when it is clearly erroneous, or shows that the judge was influenced by improper motives or misunderstood the evidence.

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF MARION COUNTY.

C. H. ALLEN, for Appellant. 1. Trespass will not lie where there is an authority given to enter on the lands of the plaintiff, and to cut and carry off timber until the defendant is satisfied. See 13 Johns. R. 414. 2. The permission given by plaintiff was general and unrestricted, and plaintiff cannot recover in any form of action, much less trespass.

S. T. GLOVER, for Appellee. 1. The court committed no error in refusing to instruct the jury to find as in case of a non-suit. 2. The verdict was in accordance with the evidence in the cause.

TOMPKINS, J.

Maupin brought his action against Craig before a justice of the peace. The justice gave judgment against Maupin, and he appealed to the Circuit Court; that court gave judgment for Maupin and Craig appeals from the judgment of the Circuit Court to this court. The plaintiff filed his account against the defendant for nineteen timber trees, estimated at thirty dollars. The defendant claimed as an off-set eleven dollars and twenty-five cents; for work and labor done, and five timber trees; the plaintiff Maupin, appellee here, produced a witness, who proved that some time in the year 1837, this witness himself informed the plaintiff, that the defendant requested the witness to tell the plaintiff, that he wished a settlement with him, and that the plaintiff replied, that he had no settlement to make with the defendant; that he owed the defendant five or six timber trees, and that he told the witness to tell the defendant to cut timber until he was satisfied; and that after being so told, the defendant cut and carried a way nineteen trees. The witness stated that three trees were worth one dollar and fifty cents each. The defendant then proved work and labor done for the plaintiff which he estimates, as above stated, at eleven dollars and twenty-five cents. The plaintiff gave some evidence to prove that the work and labor done for him were not worth as much as defendant charged for it; nothing that was entitled to the appellation of instructions was asked of the court. The first jury, before the justice of the peace, gave the defendant one cent damages. The Circuit...