Case Name: SPEER against VAN ORDEN
Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1810-05
Citations: 3 N.J.L. 653
Docket Number: 
Parties: SPEER against VAN ORDEN.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Law Reports
Volume: 3
Pages: 232–232

Head Matter:
SPEER against VAN ORDEN.
ON CERTIORARI.
Interest not recoverable on uncertain damages.
The action below was brought by Van Orden against Speer, on the following state of demand:
The plaintiff demands of the defendant fourteen dollars and fifty cents, for this, that whereas the defendant, sometime in the month of April, eighteen hundred and seven, at Preakness, in the county of Bergen, a certain negro boy named Coesar and a dog did keep, which said negro with fhe dog, to wit: the time and place aforesaid, then being the negro and dog of the defendant, one heifer of the plaintiff then and there did bite, beat, wound and kill, of the price of twelve dollars and seventy-five cents, with the interest for two years, one dollar and seventy-five cents, making the injury and damage in the whole, fourteen dollars and fifty cents, for which sum the plaintiff prays judgment against the defendant.
The insufficiency of this state of demand, was alleged as a cause of reversal.

Opinion:
By the Court.
Without deciding how far the [*] master of a negro is liable for his tortious acts, interest on uncertain and unascertained damages cannot be recovered.
Judgment reversed.