Is there legal precedence for such a case?

[pastorables]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... SECTION=US

Officials in Jefferson County, Tennessee seek for Davy Crockett marriage license papers to be returned after many years.

[dolfan]

I'm not specifically aware of precedent, and there's probably very little in the way of an exact factual parallel in history. The question is manifold. First, what you have is a Tennessee court that has already ruled, applying Tennessee law. Assuming that the trial court "got it right" on the law of Tennessee in holding that the document is and always was county or state property, the real issue is whether a Florida court will enforce Tennessee's judgment. As a general rule, of course, comity would demand that Florida honor and enforce the Tennessee judgment.

There may be other rules that come into play here, and I'm sure there are, that would suggest that the lady who has it owns it under the law. BUT, the general rule is that as against the real owner, a person in possession can not gain a better title than the one given to her. In other words, she may be the rightful owner as compared to anyone else in the world EXCEPT Jefferson County, Tennessee, in which case she may, indeed, be required to return it without pay. I don't know if the Florida court would view the case as one falling under rules of comity and by those rules enforce (or not) the Tennessee court ruling, OR if the courts in Florida would open up the whole case on its merits and decide for itself who the rightful owner is and apply Florida laws on that question.

Very interesting.

I can see some credibility to the woman's story, though, for what that's worth. A similar thing happened to me and I could've been arrested. I've told here before that I furnished my first law office with "free" desks and filing cabinets that belonged to the State of Alabama. It was all an honest mistake. I had been told by the local municipal fire department that the county health department was giving away old desks (that were in great shape), and I pulled up, was shown where to get it by the firemen (whose station was next door then to the health dept., which has built new offices a mile away and was getting ready to move). I loaded up. Seriously. Then, in one of the filing cabinets I found, later, some files on some vaccinations or something on people and I called the health dept. and said, "Hey, this is Tim Shelton. When y'all were giving away those desks about four months ago, I got one of the filing cabinets and....." told the lady I had those files and asked what I should do with them. She freaked out. They'd reported all that STOLEN. I can tell you I almost died right there. Long story short, they let me keep every bit of it. They told me I could have it, not to worry about it. I even offered to return it that day. I would've strapped it to my hip and dragged it out there if I'd had to have done so. Things happen.

[pastorables]

I'm not specifically aware of precedent, and there's probably very little in the way of an exact factual parallel in history. The question is manifold. First, what you have is a Tennessee court that has already ruled, applying Tennessee law. Assuming that the trial court "got it right" on the law of Tennessee in holding that the document is and always was county or state property, the real issue is whether a Florida court will enforce Tennessee's judgment. As a general rule, of course, comity would demand that Florida honor and enforce the Tennessee judgment.

There may be other rules that come into play here, and I'm sure there are, that would suggest that the lady who has it owns it under the law. BUT, the general rule is that as against the real owner, a person in possession can not gain a better title than the one given to her. In other words, she may be the rightful owner as compared to anyone else in the world EXCEPT Jefferson County, Tennessee, in which case she may, indeed, be required to return it without pay. I don't know if the Florida court would view the case as one falling under rules of comity and by those rules enforce (or not) the Tennessee court ruling, OR if the courts in Florida would open up the whole case on its merits and decide for itself who the rightful owner is and apply Florida laws on that question.

I just wonder if there would be as much interest if the paperwork was concerning "Joe the Plumber" and worth nothing. Yet, the (Davy Crockett) paperwork was featured on a television show and reportedly worth $50 grand.

pa

[dolfan]

Oh, I'm sure that's why they now want the document. I don't know that their motivation matters, though. But, it could if the Florida court is inclined to take a fresh look at the case on its merits applying Florida property law and equity rules. If the question is simply whether a Florida court should enforce a Tennessee state court judgment, it isn't going to make any difference.

[pastorables]

Oh, I'm sure that's why they now want the document. I don't know that their motivation matters, though. But, it could if the Florida court is inclined to take a fresh look at the case on its merits applying Florida property law and equity rules. If the question is simply whether a Florida court should enforce a Tennessee state court judgment, it isn't going to make any difference.

I understand, but is there room for higher court appeals in such cases?

[dolfan]

Oh, sure, it can be appealed. But, depending on the posture a trial court would take (comity vs. merits), the appeal would be asking very different questions. If it is a comity case (and, I think it may be), I think the likeliest outcome is Tennessee gets the document back. It is strictly a question of law and not so much one of fact, so the motivation side of it would be pretty much irrelevant. An appeals court would, in that case, simply review whether the trial court correctly applied rules of comity to make its decision. The facts themselves wouldn't be in question. This kind of case would be less likely, on the whole, to be reversed on appeal. BUT, that assumes the judge doesn't commit error, and they do err.

On another hand, if the case is treated by a trial court as a question of Florida property law, then a full blown trial with evidence, factual disputes, etc. will happen. All kinds of issues can be reviewed on appeal in such a case, but generally the appeals court asks two questions: Did the judge making the decision commit 'plain error' (a palpable and largely indisputable mistake being made, which is rare)? Did the judge correctly apply the rules in a particular issue or set of issues on appeal (in other words, did the judge follow the law)? You'd have, most likely, more room for an appellate court to find errors in a trial court's rulings where a full-blown trial is held as opposed to simply reviewing whether a certain set of rules applies (comity) and how they were applied in that case.