Case ID: vt_54/html/0394-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Yeazey, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

CHARLES H. DUDLEY v. JOHN McKENZIE.
    
      Impounding Beast. Penalty for not Giving Notice. •
    1. The statute allows fifty cents for every twenty-four hours’ neglect to give notice of • the impounding of heasts. The defendant impounded eighty sheep belonging to the plaintiff for three days, without giving him notice. Held, that the plaintiff could recover only fifty cents for each day, and not fifty cents for each one of the eighty sheep each day.
    2. R. L. s. 3980, — impounding heasts, giving notice, &e., construed.
    Heard at the May Term, 1881, on the report of a referee, Taft, J., presiding. Action, debt to recover the penalty allowed for neglecting to give notice of impounding beasts.
    - The court rendered judgment for the plaintiff to recover $1.50, and his costs ; appealed by the plaintiff. The defendant impounded eighty of the plaintiff’s sheep, and-neglected for three days to give notice in accordance with the statute. The only question before the court was, whether the plaintiff could recover fifty cents for every twenty-four hours, or, fifty cents for each one of the eighty-sheep for every twenty-four hours.
    
      Gilbert A. Davis, for the plaintiff,
    cited 37 Yt. 56 ; 30 Yt. 746 ; Sedgw. Stat. Law, p. 326, 231; 17 Yt. 479.
    
      William E. Johnson, for the defendant,
    cited 7 Yt. 363 ; 16 Yt. 68.
   The opinion of the court was delivered by

Yeazey, J.

Section 3980, of the Revised Laws, reads as follows:

“ If a person so impounding a beast does not give such notice he shall forfeit to such owner or keeper fifty cents for every twenty-four hours’ neglect to do so, and shall pay the damage which,” &c.

Under this provision the forfeiture would be no more in the case of several beasts found in one’s enclosure and impounded at the same time, than in the case of one beast. It is a penalty for the neglect in each instance of impounding, not for each beast impounded at one time. In this case the forfeiture is fifty cents for every twenty-four hours’ neglect to give the notice of the impounding of the eighty sheep, not fifty cents for each one of the eighty.

Judgment affirmed.