Hitch v. Riggin

Citations

• 26 Del. 84
• 3 Boyce 84
• 80 A. 975
• 1911 Del. LEXIS 14

Syllabus

<p>1. Replevin—Form and Scope of Remedy.</p> <p>Replevin is a form of action to recover possession of personal chattels that have been unlawfully taken or detained from their owner. The action is founded on the general or special property of the plaintiff, and his consequent right to immediate and exclusive possesion, and the action is therefore one in which the title or property of a chattel is determined.</p> <p>2. Replevin—Plaintiff’s Title and Right of Possession.</p> <p>The issue of property in replevin, notwithstanding defendant’s plea of property in himself, is not whether the property in the chattel is that of the plaintiff or the defendant, but whether the property is in the plaintiff, with a consequent right to its immediate possession, regardless of the title and property of the defendant.</p> <p>3. Replevin—Evidence—Burden of Proof.</p> <p>Plaintiff, in replevin for a horse, must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that at the time the action was brought he had and retained a property; or title in the horse in controversy of a character to give him a right to its immediate and exclusive possession, while the defendant may prevail upon the weakness of plaintiff’s title.</p> <p>4. Replevin—Defenses—Possession in Third Party.</p> <p>Defendant in replevin may set up property and right of possession in himself or in another, in order to disprove title or property in the plaintiff, and in this way meet the issue of property in the plaintiff.</p> <p>5. Replevin—Weight of Evidence—Property.</p> <p>In replevin, property in the chattel, whether that required to be proved by plaintiff or that which may be proved by the defendant, is established by direct evidence, as by contracts of sale, admissions against interest, or by evidence of acts and relation of the parties, from which property and the right of possession in one or the other may reasonably be inferred.</p> <p>6. Evidence—Weight of Evidence—Conflicting Evidence.</p> <p>The jury, when the evidence is c