Baker v Pierce
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 01 January 1790 |
| Date | 01 January 1790 |
| Court | High Court |
English Reports Citation: 92 E.R. 139
COURTS OF KING'S BENCH AND COMMON PLEAS
baker vers. pierce. S. C. Salk. 695. Holt 654. 6 Mod. 23. To charge a man with stealing wood is actionable. K,. ace. 2 Keb. 261. Difference between timber and timber trees, per Broderick, H. J. In an action on the case for words, John Baker stole my box-wood, and I will prove it. After a verdict for the plaintiff, Serjeant Darnall moved in arrest of judgment, 140 TRINITY TERM, 2 ANN^E REGIN^E 2LD.BATOMO. that those words are not actionable, for they shall be taken to mean wood growing or the like, whereof only a trespass can be committed. So to say, You are a thief, and have stolen my timber, or my apples, or my hops, is not actionable. For where words may import either a felony, or a trespass, they shall be taken in the mildest sense, unless there be other words to determine them in the worst sense. As to say, he stole my timber out of my yard, or my hops in a bag. Hob. 331, Clerk vers. Gilbert. Hutton 113, Herbert v. Angett. So Hutton 38, Mason v. Thompson. I charge thee with felony for taking forth from J. D.'s pocket, and I will prove it; the words were held not to be actionable, because it should not be intended to mean a felony, not being directly affirmed. [But Holt Chief Justice and the Court denied that case to be law, for the taking out of a man's pocket must be intended a felonious taking.] In this case the words may be taken to mean box-wood growing; and although the defendant might mean them in the worst sense, yet the intent of the speaker shall not make the words actionable, unless the words express it sufficiently. Suppose the defendant had said, he stole my coppice-wood. Mr Broderick for the plaintiff. These words are actionable, and the difference is founded on this rule, Arbor dum crescit, lignum cum crescere nescit, and therefore box-wood in this case must be intended wood cut down, whereof a felony may be committed. Yelv. 152, Higgs v. Austin. Thou hast stolen as much wood and timber as is worth twenty shillings, adjudged actionable. Noy 114, Short's case. 1 Roll. Action 70, n. 47, 48, Liffordand Stamp. March, 211. 2 Cro. 166, Loeand Saunders, 674. Smith and Ward, Hob. 77. Coote and Gilbert, Sty. 9. 3 Cro. 471. [960] The words in this ease according to common parlance import a thing of which felony may be committed, and therefore he prayed judgment for the plaintiff. Holt Chief Justice. I have heard Twisden Justice say, he knew no...
To continue reading
Request your trial