Guyer v. Snyder

Briscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a claimant’s suit, asserting title to certain personal property which had been seized and levied upon by the Sheriff of Frederick County under and by virtue of ten writs of fieri facias issued out of the Circuit Court for Frederick County, at the suit of the plaintiffs in the judgment cases., against the goods and chattels, rights and credits of Charles H. Goetz and Katie A. Goetz, the defendants in the cases, and two of the appellees on the record now before us. The property taken in execution consists of personal property and is appraised at the sum of $1,354.00. The claimant’s petition is in the usual form and asserts that the property levied upon is the property of the claimant, Albert S. Guyer, and was not the property of the defendant, Goetz.

The case was tried before a jury in the Circuit Court for Frederick County and from a judgment on a verdict in favor of the defendants the claimant has appealed. At the trial of the case the plaintiff claimant reserved certain exceptions to the rulings of the Court upon the prayers and to the admissibility of certain evidence which was permitted to be introduced after the conclusion of the evidence on both sides but before the case was submitted to the jury, and these exceptions form the basis of the appeal. The main contention upon the part of the appellant is, that the Court below committed an error in refusing to grant the plaintiff’s first and second prayers, and for these reasons it is urged the judgment should be reversed. The plaintiff’s first prayer asked the Court to rule, as a matter of law, that the defendants in the case had offered no. evidence legally sufficient to show that the property levied on by the Sheriff belonged to and was the property of the defend ²¹ ant, Charles H. Goetz, and therefore their verdict must be for the plaintiff for the property claimed.

By the second prayer the Court was asked to instruct the jury that under the pleadings and evidence in the case, the mere possession of the property levied upon by tbe plaintiff, was no evidence of title to the property in the said Charles H. Goetz at anytime. There was no error in the refusal of the Court to grant either of these prayers. The first prayer was clearly erroneous' because it assumed the fact that the property levied on by the Sheriff belonged to and was the property of the defendant, instead of leaving to the jury to find whether there was sufficient proof in support of the claimant’s contention as to this fact. The burden of proof clearly rested upon the claimant to establish his claim and ownership of the property and the Court could not take away from the jury the finding of this fact.

In Peterson v. Ellicott, 9 Md. 52 , it is said there is no principle better established than that which denies to the Court the right of