Case Name: Faris vs. Kirtley
Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Kentucky
Decision Date: 1837-10-07
Citations: 5 Dana 460
Docket Number: 
Parties: Faris vs. Kirtley.
Judges: 
Reporter: Kentucky Reports
Volume: 35
Pages: 460–461

Head Matter:
Faris vs. Kirtley.
Debt qui tam.
[Mr. J. S. Henderson for plaintiff: Mr. Owsley for defendant.]
From the Circuit Court for Rockcastle County.
October 7.
By an act of 1833, money or property lost at any “game, hazard, or sport,” may be recovered back, by the loser, or his representatives, if he or they sue within 6 months; after that, by any person who will sue within five years, from the loss; the action may be in the name, and for the sole use, of the party who brings it.
The act is cumulative, and does not abolish the qui tam action given by the act of ’99; which may be maintained by the loser, within the six months — as he alone can complain of an interference with the right reserved to him by the act of ’33.
By the act of ’99, the county in which the law is violated, and no other, has an interest in the forfeiture; and if the proof fails to show in what county the money or property was won, the pl’tf fails: a non-suit is proper. He cannot have a judg’t for himself alone, upon a qui tam declaration.

Opinion:
Chief Justice Robertson
delivered the Opinion of the Court.
This is a qui tam action by the loser, for his own benefit and that of Rockcastle county, against the person who took possession of, and used, property lost on a horse race; and the question to be considered by this Court, is whether the Circuit Judge erred in directing the jury to find for the defendant.
As the statute of 1833, (1 Stat. Law. 758,) giving to the loser of money or property on " any game, hazard or sport," a right to sue for and recover it back, in his own name and for his own use alone, at any time within five years after the losing, and an exclusive right to do so within the' first six months thereafter, and giving also a concurrent right to any other person after the expiration of six months—did not abolish the right to bring a qui tam suit, according to the act of 1799, (1 Stat. Law, 754,) but has, in that respect, only had the- effect of giving cumulative rights and remedies, according to the express language of the twenty-third section of the former act: therefore, the non-suit could not be sustained on the ground merely that the action is qui tam; nor can it be sustained on the ground that the suit was brought within six months after the race, because the loser, who alone could object, has thus sued.
Nor is there any defect of proof as to the betting, or as to the possession by the defendant (after the race) of a horse bet and lost upon it, and claimed and used by him, as one of the winners.
But there is, we think, a fatal chasm in the evidence on another and material point. According to our construction of the statute of 1799, ho other County than that in which the thing lost was staked, has a right to an interest therein, on the ground of the statutory for feiture; and there being no evidence whatsoever, tending to show where the race was run, or the property staked and lost, the plaintiff failed, of course, to prove that he had any right to sue for Rockcastle county. And though he might have sued in his own name, and for his own use alone, yet having elected to sue for himself and Rockcastle county, a judgment could not have been properly rendered in his favor exclusively, but should have conformed to the declaration; and therefore, as there was no evidence which could have sustained a verdict and judgment for the benefit of Rockcastle county, the non-suit must be approved, and the judgment therefore affirmed.