Veach

The plaintiff recovered judgment for damages in the court below, against the defendant, the sheriff of Santa Clara county, for the alleged conversion by him of certain “wheat hay.” The facts are that the plaintiff and one J. M. Swinford, being at the time tenants in common of the hay in equal proportions, an action was commenced by one Franck against Swinford upon an individual claim against the latter, and a writ of attachment issued in that action was levied by the defendant, as sheriff, upon the interest of Swinford in the hay, the whole of the hay being taken into possession under the writ. Swinford, the defendant in that action, was left in charge of the attached property as sheriff’s keeper, and while so in charge of it in that capacity, the hay Avas in part baled by him, and he assumed to make a division of it between himself and the plaintiff; setting off for the latter in a barn on the premises some thirty tons in -bales, the balance of her share being left in stacks on the field and labeled with her name. In this condition of things another suit Avas commenced by HaAvley & Co. against SAvinford upon an individual demand against him, and a writ of attachment having been…