Case ID: vt_59/html/0656-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Taft, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

IRA ANDREWS v. THOMAS BAKER.
    
      Action of Replevin. Appeal.
    
    An action oí replevin, iirouglit before a justice of tlie peace, is appealable when the ad damnum in the writ is $20, and the value of the property, as shown by the return, was $S.
    Rbi’LeviN for a cooking stove, stove pipe, etc., brought before a juscice of the peace, and appealed by the plaintiff. Heard on the defendant’s motion to dismiss, September Term, 1886, Powers, J., presiding.
    Judgment sustaining the motion.
    The motion to dismiss was put upon the ground that neither the ad damnum in the writ, nor the sum demanded by the declaration, nor the amount of the property in demand, exceeded the sum of $20, and that the action was not an action of trespass on the freehold. The writ was dated August 2. 1886.
    
      Heath & Willard, for the plaintiff,
    cited' Fide v. Wallace, 51 Vt. 418 ; R. L., ss. 821, 1246 ; Acts of 1884, No. 1.22 ; Gen. Stat. c. 31, s. 18.
    
      John G. Wing, for the defendant.
    The only question in this case is, has the County Court appellate jurisdiction of the action, of replevin when neither the sum demanded by the declaration, nor the ad damnum of the writ, nor the specifications and exhibits of the plaintiff on trial, exceeds the sum of $20 ? Acts of 1884, No. 122; Tripp v. Leland, 39 Yt. 63-; JEarl v. Lelcmd, 14 Yt. 328; Morgan v. Mead, 16 Yt. 644. The damages are but an incident to the detention, and are no part of the action of replevin. Burke v. Grace, 2 New Eng. Kep. 307. The plaintiff cannot add his damages to the value of the property and thereby make his case appealable.
   The opinion of the court was delivered by

Taft, J.

The question presented by the exceptions was decided in Fisk v. Wallace, 51 Vt. 418.

Judgment reversed ; cause remanded.