Case Name: James Cockfield, a Minor, per Guardian, against Joseph Hudson
Court: South Carolina Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: South Carolina
Decision Date: 1802
Citations: 2 Bay 425
Docket Number: 
Parties: James Cockfield, a Minor, per Guardian, against Joseph Hudson.
Judges: The Judges, without argument, ordered the verdict to be set aside, and a new trial granted, without costs.
Reporter: South Carolina Law Reports
Volume: 2
Pages: 425–426

Head Matter:
James Cockfield, a Minor, per Guardian, against Joseph Hudson.
Columbia,
1802.
Four years’ possession of a negro or other chattel, will give a title to the possessor, and the statute of limitations will bar any other claimant from a recovery.
TROVER for a negro, Sam* Marion district. Verdict for defendant. Motion for a new trial.
This was an action of trover, tried in Marion district, before Mr. Justice Brevard, who reported that the plaintiff claimed under the will of his grandfather, William Cock-field, deceased, which was produced, and the defendant claimed under a parol gift from the same William Cockfield to his daughter whom defendant had married several years before the publication of the will. In order to rebut this pa-rol gift to the defendant’s wife from old Cockfield, the plaintiff proved a quiet and uninterrupted possession of the negro Sam, from the death of his grandfather, which happened in or about the year 1794, till the year 1802, between seven and eight years ; and that after his grandfather’s death, the negro had been delivered over to him by the executor of the testator, with the knowledge of the defendant himself. The plaintiff then pleaded the statute of limitations in bar to the defendant’s claim.

Opinion:
The presiding judge then stated, that in his charge to the jury he mentioned, that whatever right the defendant might have acquired by the parol gift to his wife from his father-in-law, he had lost it by suffering the negro to remain so long in the adverse possession of the plaintiff, or his guardian, without bringing his action. That four years' peaceable possession of a negro, or other chattel, by a person claiming it in his own right, will, under our limitation act, give a title to the possessor, and bar any other person, however high his title may have been, from a recovery.
The jury, however, contrary to the opinions delivered by the judge, found for the defendant.
This was, therefore, a motion for a new trial, as the ver» diet was alleged to be against law, and the charge of the judge who tried the cause.
The Judges, without argument, ordered the verdict to be set aside, and a new trial granted, without costs.
Present, Grimice, Waties, Johnson, Trezevant and Brevard.