Johnson v. Stone

Citations

• 69 Miss. 826

Syllabus

<p>1. Replevin. Wilful taking. Evidence. Connected acts.</p> <p>Where one purchases at the same time, and as one transaction, a farm and the stock thereon, receiving separate conveyances, and the seller refuses, at the time agreed upon, to deliver possession of the property, claiming a rescission of the whole trade, and the purchaser brings replevin for ,the stock, and asks punitive damages for their detention, he may, as tending to show wilfulness, introduce evidence that the seller, on another occasion, unlawfully took and forcibly detained from him his deed to the land.</p> <p>2. Same. Wilfulness ; how shown. Separate suit. Pleadings therein not competent.</p> <p>But, on the trial of such replevin suit, it is error to allow the plaintiff to read in evidence a declaration in replevin previously filed by him to recover possession of the deed to the land, since the declaration contains mere ex parte statements in pleading.</p> <p>3. Instructions. Value of admissions. Weight of evidence.</p> <p>The jury, not the court, must determine the relative value of admissions. Accordingly, an instruction which declares that admissions, if fully and deliberately made to a disinterested person, are of weight, but that casual declarations, made in idle conversation, do not deserve much consideration, is erroneous as being on the weight of evidence.</p> <p>4. Same. Peeital of evidence. Must embrace real contentions.</p> <p>An instruction in such case is erroneous which tells the jury to find for plaintiff if it believes certain facts, though not controverted, and ignores the real contention, which, in this case, is the rescission of the trade.</p>