Were The Stone Personal Property

WERE THE STONE PERSONAL PROPERTY

OR WERE THEY PART OF THE FARM

A Nice Legal Question Settled in Justice Doty's Court Yesterday

A trover case involving some interesting points was tried in a couple of hours in Justice Doty's court Tuesday and resulted in a verdict of $11.25 and costs for the plaintiff, Herman Schultz against Albert Steffin, the defendant. The facts seem to have been that Schultz bought the right to dig some 30 load of stones from a lady who owned a farm three or four miles out of the city. But he did not begin to dig the stone until after the farm had been purchased by the Michigan Milling Company. However an official of the company told Schultz he could take the stone away. Schultz drew 18 loads of the stone but did not go after the rest of the stone for some time. When he did go they were gone. After the stone had been out for some months Albert Steffin bought a license of the Milling Company to gather stone from their farm, among the stone he took was this which Schultz claimed. Schultz wanted $36 for the stone, but the justice said the value must be computed at the farm and not in Ann Arbor. The statute of frauds was plead and a nice question of real and personal property and of ownership was involved. Both sides seemed satisfled with the decision.