1. DEBTS AND DEBTORS; TITLE TO PROPERTY PLEDGED; DAMAGES FOR INJURY OR DESTRUCTION. — When the possession of property belonging to a debtor is delivered to a creditor simply as a guaranty for the payment of a debt, the title does not pass to the temporary possessor, who has no right to damage or to destroy the property, and is liable for any injury he may cause.

It is a fact fully proven by the testimony of the witnesses of the plaintiff, besides having been admitted by the defendant, that the latter destroyed or ordered the destruction of the house described in the complaint, and took possession of the materials of the same, retaining them until the present time. The main question discussed herein is whether at the time the said house was destroyed it belonged to the plaintiff, or to the defendant. The defendant admits that originally the house belonged to the plaintiff, but alleges that the husband of the latter, now dead, owed him a certain sum of money, and that some time after his death, in 1902, the plaintiff acknowledged said debt and in payment thereof assigned to him the house above mentioned. As evidence of this he offered the document marked