Case Name: Briggs and another vs. Brown and another
Court: New York Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1842-05
Citations: 3 Hill & Den. 87
Docket Number: 
Parties: Briggs and another vs. Brown and another.
Judges: 
Reporter: Hill's Reports
Volume: 3
Pages: 87–88

Head Matter:
Briggs and another vs. Brown and another.
Ho special pleas are allowable in trover, except those which admit that the plaintiff once had a good cause of action—as a release, accord .and satisfaction, former recovery, bankrupt discharge, &c.
Accordingly, a plea alleging property in the plaintiff and that the goods were taken as a distress for rent, is bad, as denying a wrongful conversion, and therefore amounting to the general issue.
Demurrer to plea. The declaration was in trover, and the defendants pleaded that the goods were the property of the plaintiff, and, being on premises demised by the former, were there seized as a distress for rent. The plaintiffs demurred, assigning for cause that the plea amounted to the general issue. Joinder.
E. Norton^ for the plaintiffs.
G. P. Barker, (attorney general) for the defendants.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
The plea denies a wrongful conversion of the goods, and is therefore open to the objection pointed out by the demurrer, viz. that it amounts to the general issue. There are conflicting decisions in the books on the question what special pleas are allowable in trover. We think none should be allowed except such as admit that the plaintiff once had a good cause of action, as a release, accord and satisfaction, former re covery, bankrupt discharge, and the like. This plea denies that the plaintiff ever had a good cause of action.
Judgment for the plaintiff,
See Hurst v. Cook, (19 Wend. 463 to 470,) and the cases there cited.