Harms v. Solem

Citations

• 79 Ill. 460

Syllabus

<p>1. Distress warraht—excessive levy. In an action of trespass against a landlord, for taking the property of his tenant under a distress warrant, it is error to instruct the jury that if the defendant took more than was necessary to pay the rent then due, or claimed more rent than was due, the distress was illegal as to the excess of property taken and for the rent not then due.</p> <p>2. The landlord is permitted to make a reasonable distress, and he is not bound to confine himself to the precise amount of rent due. If he were knowingly to claim more rent than was due, for the purpose of oppression and wrong, and lev}' an amount sufficient for its payment, he would be guilty of wilfully and maliciously making an excessive levy; but a mere mistake in judgment as to the value of the property seized, or a want of knowledge of the sum due, can not render him a trespasser.</p> <p>3. Trespass—in a joint action for, to personal property, no recovery can be had for injury to separate property of one. In a joint action for trespass to property owned jointty by the plaintiffs, if one of them holds any of the property in his own right, as his separate property, the other has no right to recover damages sustained b3r such owner in its being seized, unless there is an arrangement between them by which it is being jointly used b3r them, and even then not for the value of the property, but simply for the injury they may sustain by being deprived of its use.</p> <p>4. Credibility of witnesses. An instruction, “that if the jury believe that a witness has wilfully made statements in any matter material to the issue, then the evidence of such witness may be rejected and utterly disregarded, except so far as corroborated by other testimony,” is manifestly wrong.</p>