Sloan v. Gibson

• Citation: 4 Mo. 32
• Parties: SLOAN v. GIBSON.
• Decision Date: 31 May 1835
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

4 Mo. 32

SLOAN

v.GIBSON.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

May Term, 1835.

ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOPER COUNTY

McGIRK, J.

Sloan brought an action of assumpsit on a warranty of a soundness of a negro slave sold by Gibson to him. There are two counts in the declaration setting out a bill of sale in both counts in which the supposed warranty is contained. The defendant craved oyer of the writing which was given. The defendant then demurred generally. The court sustained the demurrer and gave judgment for the defendant. There is a variance between the writing declared on and the first count, and the plaintiff in error in argument abandons the first count. That part of the instrument on which the warranty is founded reads as follows: “Know all men by these presents, that I, William Gibson, of Cooper county and State of Missouri, have this day, for and in consideration of the sum of four hundred and ninety dollars to me in hand paid, &c., &c., bargained and sold, and do by these presents bargain sell and convey to Montgomery Sloan, of Louisiana, a certain negro man named Joe, slave for life, aged eighteen years. The said negro man I do warrant and defend from all other claims and from me and my heirs, as also from all vices and diseases prescribed by law, to the said Sloan.”

It is insisted by Mr. French for the defendant in error, that this paper creates no warranty at all. That as the party only bound himself to warrant against those diseases prescribed by law--now as the law prescribes no diseases, none are warranted against.

The Attorney General puts the argument in this shape. Suppose the writing had warranted against all diseases contained in a certain deed, and when we look to the deed there is nothing contained there. Then there is no warranty at all.

The argument of Messrs. HAYDEN and LEONARD on the part of the plaintiff in error is, that the words prescribed by law are in reference to the laws of Missouri perfectly nonsensical, and are to be disregarded for want of meaning. But if this is not so then the court must say, what is the meaning of the words “prescribed by law,” and they insist that the warrantor meant such diseases as the law will regard as being permanent and dangerous to the life or health of the slave, and they liken it to a warranty of soundness of a horse; where at the time of the warranty the horse is afflicted with stump-sucking and rearing, these things are not considered by the courts diseases embraced in such warranty. Our...