The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1891-06-01

OPINION OF THE COURT BY DOLE, j.
This action was brought in the
District Court of Koolaupoko, Oahu,
to recover damages laid at S250.00
for the illegal acts of the defendant,
as the pound keeper OF the said dis
trict, in June last, in selling two
horses of the plaintiff while in the
pound, not taking proper care of
them, improperly increasing the ex-
penses on them and making unjust
charges against the plaintiff, in con-
travention of the law and the rights
of the plaintiff.
The horses sold for SOL. Their
value by the testimony was $3.50.
The District Justice found this lat
Ter sum in favor of the plaintiff.
The defendant appealed to Justice
of this Court at Chambers, and the
case was tried on the facts by MIR.
Justice Dole, who found the sale was
illegal as the pound master defend
anti did not post the statutory
notices until three days after the
impounding, and gave judgment for
the amount the horses were sold for,
not allowing pound fees or charges.
The defendant now brings his ex-
captions, alleging error in that:
~ The complaint cannot con-
tain claim for the price of the
horses and damage for illegal sale"
~ There is no evidence on the
part of the plaintiff and it is not
proved that the sale was illegal"
Upon the first point the law is
clear, that if the pound keeper has
not followed the statute in all the
acts required of him up to and in
GLIDING the sale, the owner of a
legally impounded animal illegally
sold can recover its full value of the
pound keeper without allowance of
pound fees and expenses.
In the case before us the COM
plant is not skillfully drawn, but it
seems to us to cover sufficiently the
claim for damages for an illegal sale,
although there are allegations of
insufficient care of the animals and
improper charges. These may be
treated as surplusage. The Justice
to whose Judgment exception Is
taken, was of opinion, as above indi-
Gated, that the sale was illegal, in
that as the statute required the no
tees to be posted las soon as posi-
BILE after the impounding," to post
them the third day after the i'm
pounding was not compliance with
the law.
The decisive question in this case
is whether the defendants delay of
three days before posting the no.
tees required by law to be posted
''as soon as possible after the i'm
pounding" was within the statute.
The notice referred to in the sta
tute shall contain a full description
of the estray with an announcement
of the day on which it will be sold at
public auction, if unclaimed, and
must be posted sat the post Office (if
there be one in the district) and not
less than two other public places" In
the district; and this must be done
''as soon as possible after the i'm
pounding"
We adopt the construction Of the
words Gas soon as possible" on the
authority of Hydraulic Eng. Co. VS..
McHaffie, 4 Q. b. Div, 673; ito do a
thing as soon as possible means to
do it within a reasonable time, with
all undertaking to do it within the
shortest practicable time" Winfield
in his Adjudged Words and Phrases,
defines g reasonable time" to mean
as soon as circumstances permit y
Up. $50.
The defendant testified that " at
ter three days the notices were put
out" He does not say that it took
him three days to post them, but