Hesthal

This is an action in the nature of replevin brought to recover possession of a diamond ring, or the sum of one thousand one hundred ' dollars, the alleged value thereof, from the defendant as the pledgee of said personal property.

The facts of the case, which are practically undisputed, are briefly these: On March 16, 1909, one J. McKinery, who had been a customer of the plaintiff in previous dealings, came to the plaintiff’s store, desiring to purchase a diamond ring, which he said he wished to give to his wife. He already owed the plaintiff several hundred dollars, and plaintiff therefore declined to sell him the ring outright and entirely on credit, but finally delivered it to him upon an oral agreement that he was to pay up the old account and begin paying fifty dollars a month on account of the purchase of the ring; and in ease of his failure so to do he was to return the ring, and the transaction was not to be regarded as a sale. McKinery received possession of the ring, but neither paid anything upon his old account nor upon the purchase price of the ring. Shortly thereafter he pledged the ring to the defendant for a loan of five hundred dollars, and not long after making…