Nesbitt v. St. Paul Lumber Co.

• Decision Date: 29 April 1875
• Citation: 21 Minn. 491
• Parties: GEORGE W. NESBITT <I>vs.</I> ST. PAUL LUMBER COMPANY.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 491

21 Minn. 491

GEORGE W. NESBITTvs.

ST. PAUL LUMBER COMPANY.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

April 29, 1875.

Action for the conversion by defendant, at Anoka, of 200,000 feet of pine saw logs, of the value of $1,600, the property of plaintiff, to plaintiff's damage in that sum. Defence, that the defendant, at the times mentioned in the complaint, had in its possession 195,132 feet, and no more, of pine logs of the marks described in the complaint, and that such logs were defendant's property.

At the trial in the district court for Anoka county, before Vanderburgh, J., it appeared that the logs in question were cut on plaintiff's land, without his permission, in the winter of 1872-3, by Clinch & Seely, and in January, 1873, were sold by them to one Teller, who bought in good faith, and without notice of any claim of plaintiff upon them. The log mark on the logs having never been recorded, Teller caused it to be recorded in his own name, in the office of the surveyor general of the district, at Minneapolis, on January 29, 1873. On March 1, 1873, plaintiff caused to be recorded in the same office a notice stating that all logs in the Mississippi river, or in Rum river or any of its tributaries, bearing such mark, belonged to him, that no other person had any interest therein, or right to dispose of the same, and that the pretended claim of Clinch & Seely, or any other person than plaintiff, to such logs, was fraudulent. Teller drove the logs into the Anoka boom, in April and May, 1873, and in the latter month sold them to defendant, who bought without any knowledge of any claim of plaintiff upon them. The conversion by defendant, on June 1, 1873, was admitted. It also appeared that the value of the logs at Anoka was $6 per thousand feet.

The court, defendant excepting, instructed the jury "that in case they found for the plaintiff, upon the evidence in the case, and the law as given, the proper measure of plaintiff's damages would be the value of the logs in question, at the time of the conversion thereof by the defendant, with interest from that date;" and in case they so found for the plaintiff, to find specially the value of the logs, considered as standing timber, at the time and place where they were cut. The jury found for the plaintiff for $1170.79 damages, with $52.94 interest from June 1, 1873. They also found the value of the stumpage of the logs to be $2.50 per thousand feet. A motion for a new trial was made and denied, and defendant ...