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Charlotte Dye Owings and Frances T. D. Owings, Plaintiffs in Error v. James F. Hull 607 (1835)

handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0115 and id is 1 raw text is: JANUARY TERM 1835. CHARLOTTE DYE OWINGS AND FRANCES T D. OwiNGs, PLAINTIFFS IN ERROR V. JAMxES F HULL. Mrs Van Pradelles being in New Orleans, and about to sail for Baltimore, made her last will and testament, and appointed her sisters residing in Baltimore, executrixes of her will. At the time of her decease, she had real and per- sonal estate, including some slaves, in New Orleans, and she left a number of children. She sailed from Now Orleans, and was never heard of after she left that place. The executrixes, after some time, supposing her dead, proved the will in Baltimore; and in 1816, gave a power of attorney to John K. West, of New Orleans, to receive all the moneys due the estate of their testatrix, and particularly to cause such proceedings to be instituted as might be necessary to effect a sale of the estate, and to give a deed for the same, and generally to perform all acts in the premises, judicially and extra-judicially, for the effectual settlement of the estate, &c. West ob- tained letters testamentary from the court of probate in New Orleans, au- thorizing him to collect the estate, and to do all lawful acts as attorney in fact of the executrixes. He sold the slaves belonging to the estate to Mr Hull, in February 1817, for 1800 dollars, by a bill of sale executed before a notary; and all the purchase money, except 450 dollars paid to one of the children of the testatrix, was paid to him; and he, soon after, failed, without having paid over any part of the proceeds of the sale to the execu- trixes. This sale was communicated to Mr Winchester, the attorney of the executrixes, and by him to them. In 1826 a suit was brought in the parish court of New Orleans by the children and heirs of Mlrs Van Pradelles against Hull, according to the laws of Louisiana, for the delivery and possession of the slaves so sold, in which suit, carried afterwards to the supreme court of the state, the slaves were decreed to the plaintiffs, upon the ground that the sale was absolutely void under the laws of Louisiana; as executrixes can only sell after an order of court, and by auction , and in this case the requisites of the law were not complied with. Hull brought this suit in the circuit court against the executrixes, to recover from them the purchase money paid for the slaves, and his expenses attending the same. The whole proceedings in the Louisiana suit, and the evidence in the same, were read to the jury by agreement, subject to all legal exceptions. The defendants excepted to the reading in evidence of the record in the case of the Heirs of the testatrix v. Hull, as not evidence in the present suit except as to the judgment, that is, the pleadings and proceedings on which the judgment was founded, and to which as matter of record it necessarily refers. By the Court. This objection was well taken. The suit was res inter alios acta, and the proceedings, and judgment thereon, were no further evidence, than to show a recovery against Hull by a paramount title. A copy of the bill of sale of the slaves from West to Hull, on record in the notary's office in New Orleans, was offered in evidence. No evidence to account for the non production of the original, was offered by the plaintiff; but, by the laws of Louisiana, copies of such notarial acts are evidence, the

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