Case ID: va_16/html/0480-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Stratton v. Minn
    Friday, June 21st, 1811.
    Detinue—Evidence—Case at Bar.—In detinue for slaves, parol evidence l' -ove that a deed was executed for the purpose oi defrauding- creditors, and therefore void, is admissible upon the plea of non detinet and issue.
    In an action of detinue, (plea non detinet and issue,) the plaintiff, on the trial, claimed the slave Tom, the subject of controversy, under a bill of sale from William P. Skillern, part of the consideration expressed in which was a debt stated to be due to Minnis, the plaintiff, from the said Skillern’s wife, previous to her intermarriage. The defendant, who had purchased him at a sheriff’s sale under an execution against the said Skillern, alleged the said bill of sale was fraudulent as to creditors and purchasers, and, among ■other evidence, introduced a witness to prove that the plaintiff had, since the said Skil-lern’s marriage, and not long before the date of the said bill of sale, told the witness, in a conversation upon the subject, *thatMrs. Skillern, at the time of her intermarriage with the said William P. Skillern, lived with him, the plaintiff ; and that she was clear of debt, and owed him nothing, and that he had taken a bill of sale of all the property of the said Skillern to protect it from his creditors, and asked the witness if he was not right in so doing. The defendant also wished to prove that the said Skillern, but a little time before the date of the said bill of sale, had paid large sums of money to the plaintiff ; but the district court considered all this testimony inadmissible, and refused to let it go to'the jury; whereupon a bill of exceptions was filed.
    Verdict and judgment for the plaintiff; from which the defendant appealed.
    Wickham, for the appellant.
    Call, for the appellee.
    
      
      See monographic note on "Detinue and Replevin” appended to Hunt v. Martin, 8 Gratt. 578.
      The principal case is cited in Bird v. Wilkinson, 4 Leigh 274.
    
   Monday, June 24th. The court reversed the judgment, and awarded a new trial, with a direction that the evidence be permitted to go to the jury.