International Text-Book Co. v. Pratt Mercantile & Publishing Co.
| Decision Date | 03 July 1916 |
| Docket Number | 8561. |
| Citation | 61 Colo. 571,158 P. 712 |
| Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
| Parties | INTERNATIONAL TEXT-BOOK CO. v. PRATT MERCANTILE & PUBLISHING CO. |
Error to County Court, City and County of Denver; Ira C Rothgerber, Judge.
Replevin by the International Text-Book Company, formerly the Colliery Engineer Company, against the Pratt Mercantile & Publishing Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff brings error. Reversed and remanded.
Rogers Ellis & Johnson and Erl H. Ellis, all of Denver, for plaintiff in error.
John R. Smith, H. B. Woods, and Stephen R. Pratt all of Denver, for defendant in error.
The plaintiff in error, the owner of the International Correspondence School, was plaintiff below in an action in replevin to recover from defendant in error certain books, which the record shows had been loaned by plaintiff to various students of the correspondence school which it conducts. The defendant claimed the books by purchase from persons having possession of them. It appears that plaintiff loaned the books to the students under a contract by which it was agreed, among other things, that no person not a holder of one of plaintiff's scholarships should ever be permitted to study from them, and that the students might use the books so long as they complied with the terms of the contract, in default of which they should return the books on demand. The defense was that plaintiff was estopped to claim the books because the defendant had, for a long time, been buying such books, in good faith, from persons having possession of them, without knowledge of plaintiff's claim, or in the belief that plaintiff did not dispute the right of these parties to deal in such books so long as the scholarships under which the books had been delivered to such third parties had been paid for, and that defendant relied upon the possession of said parties. On the trial defendant's manager testified that the defendant company had handled these text-books constantly during the time of his connection with the business, a period of 22 years; that the books were purchased from those who were or had been students of the school. He further testified that he knew that the books were obtained from the company under a written contract, and that he might have had one of these contracts, but had not given it particular attention until the suit was begun; that he had known cases where the books had been retained for 15 years after the completion of the course of study without any demand for their return; hence he supposed that there was no claim by plaintiff to ownership of the books 'after they were paid for.' The county court directed a verdict for the defendant, and entered judgment accordingly.
For the plaintiff in...
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...or an acquiescence as a matter of law, to determine whether the necessary matters have been proved. International Textbook Co. v. Pratt Merc. & Pub. Co., 61 Colo. 571, 158 P. 712. Had the case been tried on this theory and had the jury been instructed thereon, a different result might have ......
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... ... fact from other facts. International Text-Book Co. v. Pratt, ... etc., Co., 61 Colo. 571, 158 ... ...