Good news, your choppers are not chattels.
A peculiar suit has been decided in St. Paul, Minn. In the case of Charles A. Vanduce vs William J. Woolsey, it has been claimed that the sheriff could take possession of the plate to which the false teeth were attached and dispose of the whole at a public auction. But Judge Kelly has decided that a dentist has no lien on a set of teeth on a plate after they have been attached to the patient’s mouth; as so long as the teeth are in the defendant’s mouth they are part of his body and cannot be seized as chattels. The case has been before the courts for some time, and attracted widespread attention. In Periscope, Dental Cosmos,S, 1263: 1893.
