Majority
p. 410Blake against Jerome. NEW-YORK, October, 1817.
Headnote
A person going or sending on thejmdjf an-o“n property is a trespasser.IN ERROR, on certiorari to a justice’s court. u
The defendant m error, brought an action against the plaintiff *n error, in the court below, for a trespass in entering into ^¡3 antj taking away a mare and colt. The defendant be
p. 411
low pleaded the general issue, and gave notice, that the mare and colt were his property. Upon the trial, it appeared, that i they were taken out of the plaintiff’s field, by a person who acted , under the orders and directions of the defendant, after they had been demanded by the defendant, and refused to be delivered to him, and after he had been expressly forbidden to take them. Each party produced evidence to show property in himself, and the justice gave judgment for the plaintiff below, the defendant in error.
The judgment must be affirmed. The evidence as to the right of property in the mare and coltimay be somewhat questionable ; but the defendant below was, at all events, guilty of a tresspass, in sending a person on the land of the plaintiff to take them away. (6 Johns* Rep. 5.) The action was, therefore, technically supported, and where the evidence as to true ownership of the property is so nearly balanced, the judgment ought not to be disturbed.
Judgment affirmed.