Masteller v. Trimbly
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
in error. Error to the Common Pleas of Northumberland. ' The action was in its origin trespass, not exceeding fifty dollars, brought before a justice of the peace, under the act oC 1st March 1799, 3 Smith’s Laws, 354; in which the plaintiff Trimbly demanded 50 dollars, “ damages sustained “ by the defendant’s cheating the plaintiff’s servant, a minor, “ in trading a horse for a mare, for which the servant had “ no authority to trade.”
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in error. Error to the Common Pleas of Northumberland. ' The action was in its origin trespass, not exceeding fifty dollars, brought before a justice of the peace, under the act oC 1st March 1799, 3 Smith’s Laws, 354; in which the plaintiff Trimbly demanded 50 dollars, “ damages sustained “ by the defendant’s cheating the plaintiff’s servant, a minor, “ in trading a horse for a mare, for which the servant had “ no authority to trade.” The case was referred to arbitrators who awarded to the plaintiff 52 dollars 50 cents. The defendant appealed to the Common Pleas, where there was a second…
1Opinion of the Court
Tilghman C. J.
delivered judgment.
We are of opinion that the act of 1st March 1799, under which this suit was brought, did not give jurisdiction to justices of the peace, except in cases where damage arises-by an actual and immediate injury done to real or personal property. It was not meant to include injuries arising without any act operating immediately on the body of the property: such for instance as the present case, which was cheating in a bargain concerning a horse. If the words were taken in their greatest possible extent, they would include Trover and Conversion, which was never…