Opinion
(Spring Term, 1804.)
Husband and wife must join in detinue for the slaves of the wife detained before and at the time of the marriage.
Detinue for negroes. Pleas, non detinet and statute of limitations. On the trial in Edenton Superior Court, April Term, 1803, the jury found a special verdict, to wit: "That the defendant does not detain any of the negro slaves mentioned in the plaintiff's declaration, except John, George, and Oxford, etc. That the defendant, being possessed of these three negroes, made a gift of them to his daughter, the wife of the plaintiff, before her marriage, and while she was a child; that she afterwards married Samuel H. Jameson — after his death, John Cunningham — and after whose death she married the present plaintiff. That the said negroes, ever after the said gift, remained in possession of the defendant, who held and claimed them as his own property; and neither the plaintiff nor his wife, nor either of her said former husbands, ever claimed the said negroes until this suit was brought. Upon these facts, the jury being ignorant whether the plaintiff is entitled to maintain this action in his own name, submits the same to the judgment of the court; and if the court shall be of opinion that the law is for the plaintiff, then they find for him, etc.; but if otherwise, they find for the defendant.
This case is governed by the authority of the case, Wm. Johnston and Wife v. Abner Pasteur, ante, 582.
Let judgment of nonsuit be entered.
Cited: Weeks v. Weeks, 40 N.C. 120.
NOTE. — See Johnston v. Pasteur, ante, 582, and the cases there cited in the note.
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