Anderson v. Gouldberg case brief

Anderson v. Gouldberg case brief

53 N.W. 636

CASE SYNOPSIS: Defendants, the strangers to the property, challenged an order of the District Court of Isanti County (Minnesota), which entered a verdict for plaintiff, the possessor of the property, and assessed his damages in an action to recover the possession of pine logs. The trial court denied denying defendants' motion for a new trial.

FACTS: Plaintiff claimed that he cut the logs in question and hauled them to a mill from which place defendants took them. The logs in controversy were not cut upon the land of the defendants, and consequently that they were entire strangers to the property.

ANALYSIS:

The court affirmed and found that plaintiff obtained possession of the logs in the first instance by trespassing upon the land of some third party. When it was said that to maintain replevin plaintiff's possession must have been lawful, it meant that it must have been lawful as against the person who deprived him of the property. Possession was good title against the entire world except those having a better title. Possession only raised a presumption of title. One who took property from the possession of another could only rebut the presumption by showing a superior title in himself or in some way connecting himself with one who had superior title. The court held that one who acquired the possession of property, whether by finding, bailment, or by mere tort, had a right to retain that possession as against a mere wrongdoer who was a stranger to the property.

CONCLUSION: The court affirmed the order that held in favor of plaintiff and that denied defendants' motion for a new trial.

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