J.B. Brady et al. v. Pauline Garrett

Pauline Garrett (plaintiff) owned a revolver that her husband, Pat Garrett, had used to kill Billy the Kid. Pat gave Pauline the gun as a gift in 1904. Pat later loaned the revolver to his friend M.T. Powers so that Powers could display the gun in his saloon. Pat included a tag on the revolver stating that it was a loan. Powers displayed the gun until the saloon closed in 1918, at which time Powers stored it in his home until he died in 1931. Pat Garrett died in 1908. Pauline Garrett sued J.B. Brady (defendant), the administrator of Powers’s estate, seeking to recover the revolver. The trial court concluded that Pauline retained title to the gun and ordered Brady to hand it over. Brady appealed, arguing that Powers had acquired title to the gun after he possessed it for a long time without any request by Pat or Pauline that he return it. Brady argued that Powers’s ongoing possession of the gun amounted to an adverse claim of ownership against Pauline and that the 10-year maximum statute of limitations for filing to recover the gun had passed. Pauline claimed she had no knowledge that Powers intended to retain the revolver forever, nor did Powers ever share that intention with her. In addition, because Pauline and not her husband owned the pistol, Powers could not argue that Pat had given it to him either as a gift or in a sale because Pat had no authority to do so.