Maxwell v. Harrison

• Decision Date: 31 January 1850
• Docket Number: No. 9.,9.
• Citation: 8 Ga. 61
• Parties: William A. Maxwell, plaintiff in error. vs. Charles T. Harrison, defendant.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

8 Ga. 61

William A. Maxwell, plaintiff in error. vs. Charles T. Harrison, defendant.

No. 9.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

JANUARY TERM, 1850.

Trover, &c.in Leo Superior Court. Tried before Judge Warren, May Term, 1849.

Charles T. Harrison brought an action of trover, &c. in Lee Superior Court, for a negro girl, Caroline, against William A. Maxwell, "as trustee for Catharine Bozeman." When the cause was called for trial, at May Term, 1849, plaintiff's counsel moved to strike out the words "as trustee for Catharine Bozeman, " wherever they occurred in the petition, so that the cause might proceed against the defendant, individually. No notice had been given to defendant of the motion to amend. The Court sustained the motion, and defendant, by his counsel, excepted.

Both parties having announced themselves ready, the cause was submitted to a Jury.

Both parties claimed title under Mrs. Sarah Cain. Harrison under an alledged parol gift in 1843, and the defendant under a voluntary deed to him, in trust for Catharine Bozeman, made in 1846. Charles T. Harrison was the son of Mrs. Cain, by a former marriage, and Catharine Bozeman was her daughter by her last husband, John Cain. In the year 1843, Mrs. Sarah Cain went to live with Harrison, and carried the negro girl, Caroline, with her. They both remained there during the years 1843 and 1844. After that time, Mrs. Cain lived a portion of her time with each of her children, and generally carried the negro with her. Mrs. Cain died at Bozeman's, in 1846.

Plaintiff (Harrison,) proposed to prove, by several witnesses, the sayings of Mrs. Sarah Cain, during the time she lived with Harrison, by which she acknowledged that the negro girl, Caroline, "belonged" to him, and that she "had given her to him;" and also her sayings to the same effect after 1844, and while the negro was waiting upon her. To all which evidence the counsel for defendant objected, on the ground that these sayings of Mrs. Cain should not go to the Jury against the defendant—the title being out of Mrs. Cain, as the declarations themselves show, and consequently they were not against the interest of the declarant, and more particularly while she lived at Harrison's, as the negro was then proven to be in the possession of Harrison. The Court overruled the objection, and the defendant excepted.

Plaintiff proposed to prove by Sarah Hobbs, examined by interrogatory, that "she never heard of any person claiming saidgirl, during the time that he (Harrison) was in possession of her, and exercised the ownership." Defendant objected that this was a conclusion from facts, and could not be proven by the witness. The Court overruled the objection, and defendant excepted. Plaintiff below (Harrison,) proposed to prove by David Spence, "that he was present at the trial of a possessory warrant against Bozeman, the husband of Mrs. B., for this negro, before the commencement of the suit—heard defendant admit, in his testimony as a witness, on that occasion, that he had the right of possession to the negro, and the right to control her, as the trustee of Mrs. Bozeman, and heard him declare, in reply to a question from the presiding Justice, that he would not give up the negro, if the Court gave the possession to plaintiff\', because Bozeman hud no right to the negro—that these admissions were made for the purposes of that trial." To the admission of this testimony defendant objected, on the ground that the proper proof of such a trial, and the parties to it, was the possessory warrant itself, or the evidence of the presiding Justice, and defendant had a right to restrict his admissions to that trial; which objection was overruled by the Court, and defendant excepted.

Plaintiff below proposed to prove by Hiram Watts, he not being a physician, his opinion as to the soundness of Mrs. Sarah Cain's mind; defendant objected, and the Court overruling the objection, defendant excepted. The witness swore " that, in his opinion, from what he saw of her and heard her say, that she was not, at all times, in her sound mind—being some 75 or 80 years old. In a conversation he had with her on one occasion, at the house of plaintiff, Mrs. Cain would repeat the same thing over and over again, and would vary her statements of the same circumstances—complained of the treatment she had received from her children." " Mrs. Cain told the witness, on one occasion, that Caroline was to be Harrison's at her death, or she would give him the negro when she died—does not recollect which."

The plaintiff below having closed his case, defendant moved the Court for a non-suit—

1st. Because plaintiff had shown no property in himself.

2d. Because he had shown no conversion by Maxwell, the defendant, or that the negro had ever been in his possession, or under his dominion.

The Court overruled the motion, and defendant excepted.

The defendant introduced the trust deed made to him by Mrs. Cain, and proved, by the subscribing witnesses, that she was in her right mind at the time of its execution. It was in evidence, that the negro was with Mrs. Cain at the time of her death, and remained at Bozeman\'s after that time—Maxwell claiming the right to control her, as trustee.

The Court charged the Jury, that " the declarations of Mrs. Cain, while in possession of the property, that the title was in Harrison—she having given it to him—were proper evidence for their consideration; and if it convinced them of the title of the plaintiff, they should so find. The conversion may be proved by proof of demand and refusal; though this is not, of itself, conversion, but evidence of conversion. Conversion may be proved or inferred, by proof of acts of defendant, evidencing ownership while title is in plaintiff. When defendant claims title to possession and control of the property, against the right of plaintiff, these acts of ownership are usually proven by possession and use of the property, but may be proved by the declarations of the defendant himself."

" The Statute of 19th December, 1838, declaring parol gifts of slaves not to be good, and available at Law and in Equity, against purchasers from the donor, without notice, in the opinion of the Court, does not apply to such purchasers as defendant appears to be here, and applies only to purchasers for a valuable consideration, aud not to volunteers or donees, as in this case."

The Court farther charged the Jury as follows: " I am requested to charge you, that possession must have accompanied the gift. This is the law. The word gift includes change of possession, and the possession and dominion accompany the gift presently, unless the terms of the gift limit the time when the possession in the donee is to commence: then it is not necessary. A may give personal property, by parol, to B —passing the title presently, and limiting the possession to C for life; and the gift to B is good. And so A may give property, by parol, to B— the title to pass immediately, but limit the possession of B till after the donor's death—the donor retaining possession, and using the property himself, till that time. And if such was the fact in the present case, the gift to Harrison was good, notwithstanding the subsequent conveyance to defendant, in trust, for Mrs. Bozeman —it not being competent for Mrs. Cain to...