Hiram Lyles informs the court that he recently purchased a "small negro boy" from James B. Schooler for five hundred and fifty dollars. Schooler warranted five-year-old William as sound and healthy, and Lyles himself thought the boy looked "sprightly." After the purchase, however, Lyles discovered that William was "affected with Scrofula, a very dangerous disease." Revealing that William had "lumps under his jaws" and "soor eyes," Lyles asserts that Schooler was aware of the boy's "long standing" disease, but concealed his condition as best he could by washing William's eyes so that they "might look as well as possible" before Lyles arrived at the house. Schooler also "represented" that he purchased William in Virginia, but lived himself in East Tennessee. Fearing that Schooler is a "mere passer through the country" with "no effects within the jurisdiction of the Court," the petitioner worries that he will be "without remedy or effectual means to collect any damages he might recover in an action at Law upon the warranty in his said Bill of sale." He asks the court's permission to "rescind said trade" and return William to Schooler; otherwise, he seeks writs of injunction and attachment to prevent Schooler from collecting the note or assigning it to anyone else.
Result: Partially granted.
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
