Price v. Osborne
| Decision Date | 16 November 1940 |
| Citation | 147 S.W.2d 412,24 Tenn.App. 525 |
| Parties | PRICE v. OSBORNE et al. |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Appeals |
Certiorari Denied by Supreme Court February 15, 1941.
Appeal in Error from Circuit Court, Robertson County; Dancey Fort Judge.
Action by Louis Price against Patterson Osborne and another, for damages to personalty caused by removal of roof of house. To review a judgment for defendants, plaintiff brings error.
Judgment ordered for plaintiff.
O'Brien & Pepper, of Springfield, for plaintiff in error Price.
Charles Willett, of Springfield, for defendant in error Mrs. Grubbs.
Rhea Morgan Burrow, of Springfield, for defendant in error Osborne.
This is an action to recover damages to personal property caused by the removal of the roof of the tenant house in which the plaintiff Price lived at the time.
The original warrant states that it is an action to recover "debt by damages occasioned by trespass on property rented by and in possession of plaintiff wherein the roof of said property was removed and personal property of plaintiff was damaged by rain and otherwise under $500.00."
The suit originated in the Court of General Sessions of Robertson County, which court rendered judgment in favor of the defendants and the plaintiff's suit was dismissed at his cost.
On the plaintiff's appeal to the Circuit Court (Private Acts 1939, Ch. 195, sec. 4), the case was tried by the judge without the intervention of a jury and judgment was rendered in favor of the defendants.
The plaintiff's motion for a new trial was overruled and he appealed in error to this court and has assigned errors which raise only the questions (1) whether the defendants were guilty of trespassing, and (2) how much the plaintiff was damaged.
The facts of the case are as follows:
Louis Price rented from Mrs. R. F. Grubbs a three-room apartment in a six-room house at a rental of $1.25 a week, payable every two weeks in advance.
In May 1940, he tendered $2.50 to R. F. Grubbs, husband of Mrs. Grubbs, who collected the rents as her agent, which he refused to accept, and notified Price that Mrs. Grubbs wanted the possession of the property.
Grubbs went to the Court of General Sessions and requested the issuance of a writ of forcible entry and detainer against Price, which was refused because he was not prepared to execute bond.
Price continued in actual possession of the apartment.
About ten days or two weeks after Grubbs had given notice to Price to vacate the property, Mrs. Grubbs hired Patterson Osborne to remove the roof from the house.
Osborne removed a part of the roof from the kitchen of the house, and stopped on remonstrance of Mrs. Price.
Several days later it rained.
Price instituted this suit against Mrs. Grubbs and Osborne for damages for injury to his kitchen furniture as the result of trespass in removing the roof.
Mrs. Grubbs has since obtained possession of the apartment by a forcible entry and detainer proceeding.
According to the evidence, Price was in actual possession of the apartment, and Mrs. Grubbs was entitled to possession and could have instituted a forcible entry and detainer proceeding, which she did not do at that time, and Osborne at Mrs. Grubbs' direction removed a part of the roof. This evidence establishes the fact that the entry on the land and the removal of the roof was a trespass.
The landlord could obtain possession only by a forcible entry and detainer proceeding. Code, secs. 9244, 9245, 9257; Cutshaw v. Campbell, 3 Tenn.App. 666, 688, 689.
A tenant at sufferance may maintain an action of trespass. 26 R.C.L. 957, § 33.
All parties who...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Mendes v. Johnson
...Tessitore, 165 So.2d 888 (La.App.1964); Edwards v. C. N. Inv. Co., 27 Ohio Misc. 57, 272 N.E.2d 652 (Mun.Ct.1971); Price v. Osborne, 24 Tenn.App. 525, 147 S.W.2d 412 (1940); Freeway Park Bldg., Inc. v. Western States Wholesale Supply, 22 Utah 2d 266, 451 P.2d 778 (1969); King v. Firm, 3 Uta......
-
In re Tennessee Valley Auth. Ash Spill Litig.
...is done or the injury is slight, the trespass gives rise to a cause of action for nominal damages at least.”); Price v. Osborne, 24 Tenn.App. 525, 147 S.W.2d 412, 413 (1940). Given the above, the Court agrees with plaintiffs that a trespass claim under Tennessee law may be premised upon the......
-
Whitehorn v. Dickerson, 8612
... ... 208, 204 S.W. 204, 206(2), 1 A.L.R. 433; Southern Fire & Casualty Co. v. Norris, 35 Tenn.App. 657, 250 S.W.2d 785, 792(12); Price v. Osborne, 24 Tenn.App. 525, 147 S.W.2d 412, 413(6, 7) ... Upon cross-examination of plaintiff, the only witness, it was developed ... ...
-
Barrios v. Simpkins
... ... operate to vest the adverse possessor with title. See ... Cumulus , 226 S.W.3d at 375; Wilson v. Price , ... 195 S.W.3d 661, 666-67 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2005). Our Supreme ... Court has explained regarding the statutory forms of adverse ... consequential damages. Schumpert v. Moore , 24 ... Tenn.App. 695, 149 S.W.2d 471 (1940); Price v ... Osborne , 24 Tenn.App. 525, 147 S.W.2d 412 (1940) ... Gottschall v. Fenn , 1986 WL 655, at *2 (Tenn. Ct ... App. Jan. 7, 1986) (emphasis ... ...