Case Name: William Simons vs. John Fox, Ex'or of Emanuel Geiger
Court: South Carolina Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: South Carolina
Decision Date: 1859-12
Citations: 12 Rich. 392
Docket Number: 
Parties: William Simons vs. John Fox, Ex’or of Emanuel Geiger.
Judges: O’Neall, Wardlaw, Withers, Whitner, and Gloves, JJ., concurred.
Reporter: South Carolina Law Reports
Volume: 46
Pages: 392–395

Head Matter:
William Simons vs. John Fox, Ex’or of Emanuel Geiger.
Runaway Slave — Adverse Possession — Statute of IAmi- . tations.
A.’s slave ran away, and B. had possession of him, claiming him as his own, for more than four years. B.’s possession was unknown to A., but there was no evidence that A. knew the slave to be a runaway:— Held, that B., by his adverse possession, had acquired a good title to the slave.
A party’s title, acquired by four years adverse possession of a chattel, is good at law, even though the possession was fraudulent and concealed from the owner.
BEFOBE, O’NEALL, J„ AT KICHLAND, FALL TEEM, 1859.
The report of his Honor, the presiding judge, is as follows:
“ This was an action of trover to recover the value of a negro man, purchased by the plaintiff, 23d June, 1855, of Thomas Eyan, a broker, in Charleston.
“The case may be stated thus: The negro, beyond all doubt, was once the property of Emanuel- Geiger. He ran away from. him. He was in the possession, afterwards, of a man named Sineath, in Horry and Marion, from 1848 or 1849, to his death in 1855 or 1856. During all this time he held and claimed the negro as his own. At his -death, in Marion District, administration was granted to James Pressly. On his application to the Ordinary, he ordered him sold; he was sold, and purchased by Lamb, who sold to Moody, who placed him in Eyan’s hands for sale; he sold to the plaintiff for seven hundred dollars ; he took him home, and had him about two weeks, when he ran away. He was taken up as a runaway, in Sumter, September, 1855, and put in gaol. Mr. Harrison there found him, brought him to Columbia, where Emanuel Geiger identified him as his runaway slave, and sold him to James Harrison, who carried him out of the State.
“ I thought, and so instructed the jury, that the plaintiff was entitled to recover. He had shown a regular title from Sineath, who had an adverse possession for more than four years. This defeated Geiger’s title. The jury, however, differed with me upon the law' of the case, and found for the defendant.”
The plaintiff appealed, and now moved this Court for a new trial on the grounds:
1. Because the plaintiff having proved a good and sufficient title to the negro in question, and the conversion by the defendant’s testator was entitled to a verdict.
2. Because the verdict was not only against the evidence, but was unsupported by evidence.
3. Because the verdict was directly contrary to the law, and to the charge of the presiding judge.
Bachman, Waites, for appellant,
cited 2 Stat. 585; Glark vs. Reeder, 1 Spear, 398; Thomas vs. Ervin, Chev. 22 ; Miles vs. Berry, 1 Hill, 296; Gregg vs. Bigham, 1 Hill, 299 ; Troup vs. Smith, 20 John 32 ; 11 Eich. 369.
Bauskett, contra. •

Opinion:
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Munro, J.
Where a party to an action, whether occupying the position of plaintiff, or defendant, rests his right to a chattel on a title acquired under the Statute of Limitations, unless the adverse claimant can bring himself within one or other of the exceptions enumerated in the statute, it is too clear for doubt, that in a Court of law such title must prevail. The equity doctrine in reference to fraud undoubtedly is, that pending the .concealment of the fraud, and until its discovery, the operation of the statute is suspended, and is founded upon the idea, that the act of fraud is a continuing one until discovered. This doctrine, however, has no application to Courts of law; they are barred by the express provisions of the statute ; and the rule will be found to obtain, whether the action be founded on contract or tort.
Examples where this question has been adjudicated under both these forms of action, will be found in our own books; a reference to two of them will suffice; the first case is that of Miles vs. Berry, (1 Hill, 296;) the other is Clark vs. Reeder, (1 Spear, 398.) In the first mentioned case, the maker of a note had secretly and fraudulently obtained possession of it, and kept it until the statute had run out. The plaintiff on discovering the fraud, and that the defendant had possession of it, brought assumpsit as on a lost note, to recover the amount, and it was held, the statute was a bar to the action notwithstanding the fraud, and although the plaintiff did not know where the note was. O'Neall, J., in delivering the opinion of the Court, remarks, " Unless the discovery of the fraud can be regarded as the plaintiff's cause of action, it cannot have the effect of preventing the operation of the statute of limitations. For to allow it to have effect in any other point of view, would be to make and allow by judicial construction, an exception to the Statute of Limitations, which the Legislature did not think proper to make."
In the last mentioned case, Clark vs. Reeder, the action was trover for the conversion of cotton.; the defendant pleaded the Statute of Limitations, to which the plaintiff replied, fraudulent conversion and concealment by the defendant, undiscovered by the "plaintiff until a time within four years before the commencement of the action; per Wardlaw, J., in delivering the opinion of the Court, " the plaintiff not being within one of the enumerated exceptions, the effect of the statute upon his case is ascertained by determining when his cause of action arose. Erom that moment the statute began to run, and no subsequent fraud could arrest it as to the cause of action before arisen, even if such fraud should be in itself a new cause of action, subject to a new operation of the statute."
The same rule has been adopted by the Courts in most of the other States; likewise by the English Court, especially since the time of Lord Mansfield. But it is argued, that however the rule may be in relation to fraud, it can have no application to the case before us, because at the time that Sineath obtained possession of the slave, the latter was a runaway, and that no possession of a fugitive slave however long, can confer a title under the statute.
Whether the possession of a fugitive slave, by a party knowing such slave to be a fugitive during the statutory period, will or will not defeat the owner's right, is a question upon which we express no opinion; and for the simple reason, that no such question is made by the proof. " Eor while it is conceded that the slave in question was a runaway, for. it is so stated in the circuit report, it must at the same time be conceded, that there was no proof, that Sineath knew him to be a runaway. On the contrary, the testimony discloses a condition of things from which a contrary inference may fairly be deduced, and one by no means inconsistent with entire good faith.
In looking then at the whole case as it has been presented to us, we are constrained to say that the verdict is wholly unsustained by the law, wherefore the motion for a new trial must be granted. And it is so ordered.
O'Neall, Wardlaw, Withers, Whitner, and Gloves, JJ., concurred.
Motion granted.