Downey v. Stacey
Supreme Court of Louisiana
APPEAL from the District Court of the First District, Buchanan, J. This was an action by the owner to recover the value of a slave, hired to the defendants as fireman on a steamer owned by them, and never returned. The answer denied all the allegations in the petition. A supplemental answer alleged that, if the slave was hired by the defendants, he was either lost overboard, or absconded from the boat.
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APPEAL from the District Court of the First District, Buchanan, J. This was an action by the owner to recover the value of a slave, hired to the defendants as fireman on a steamer owned by them, and never returned. The answer denied all the allegations in the petition. A supplemental answer alleged that, if the slave was hired by the defendants, he was either lost overboard, or absconded from the boat. The judge of the District Court, in the reasons assigned by him for rendering a judgment in favor of the defendants, states that, the evidence had convinced him “ that the slave must have…
1Opinion of the Court
The judgment of the court was pronounced by
Eustis, C. J.
The judgment in this case is evidently correct. The defendants have proved every thing which, under the hypothesis of the death or escape of the slave, they were bound to show. Vide Chase v. The Mayor et al., 9 La. 347. The difference betweeta the hiring of a slave and an ordinary bailment, is obvious. The slave is at the risk of the master, and it would be unreasonable to exact any further proof of his loss than the attending circumstances usually afforded in such cases. The presumption of law arising from the nondelivery of the object…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Chase v. MayorSupreme Court of Louisiana · 1836