State ex rel. Scruggs v. Packard

This is a suit on the defendant Packard’s official bond as a notary public in and for Jackson county, Missouri. The charge is that through the notary’s negligence in taking an acknowledgment to a chattel mortgage, the relator sustained a loss of $6250, which, he seeks to recover and for which-he prays judgment. At the close of plaintiff’s evidence the court, at defendant’s request, instructed the jury to find for plaintiff but for nominal damages only and the jury returned a verdict assessing damages at one cent. Thereupon plaintiff appealed.

For many years before and up to the transaction…