Degnan v. Nowlin

82 S.W. 758, 5 Indian Terr. 312, 1904 Indian Terr. LEXIS 37
CourtCourt Of Appeals Of Indian Territory
DecidedOctober 19, 1904
StatusPublished

This text of 82 S.W. 758 (Degnan v. Nowlin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court Of Appeals Of Indian Territory primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Degnan v. Nowlin, 82 S.W. 758, 5 Indian Terr. 312, 1904 Indian Terr. LEXIS 37 (Conn. 1904).

Opinion

Townsend, J.

Appellant has filed assignment of errors as follows: “(1) In overruling defendant’s motion for a new trial. (2) In refusing to instruct the jury to find a verdict in [316]*316favor of the defendant in the sum of $175.15, as requested by the defendant. (3) In holding that there was sufficient evidence to sustain the verdict of the jury. (4) In refusing to give to the jury the instruction requested by the defendant, which is as follows: 'If you believe from the evidence that the contract in evidence in this case was entered into between the defendant, on the one side, and the plaintiff, Nowlin, and Ab Freese, jointly and as partners, on the other side, then you cannot find your verdict in favor of the plaintiff.' (5) In refusing to give to the jury the instruction requested by the defendant, which is :as follows, to wit: ‘If you believe from the evidence that the contract testified to in this case was entered into between the defendant, as one party, and the plaintiff, Nowlin, and Ab Freese, jointly, as the other party, the plaintiff will not be entitled to recover in this case the value of any work done by him under such contract.’ (6) In refusing to give to the jury the instruction requested by the defendant, which is as follows, to wit: ‘If you believe from the evidence in this case that the contract between plaintiff and the defendant provided that the plaintiff was to sink a slope until the same was in such condition that coal could be mined therefrom and placed upo.n the cars at a less expense than ninety cents per ton, and was thereafter to operate said mine for a term of not less than one year, then your verdict in this case must be for the sum of $175.15.’ (7) In refusing to instruct the jury as requested by the defendant as follows, to wit: ‘Before the plaintiff can recover in this case, he must prove to you by preponderance of the evidence that the defendant entered into a contract to furnish supplies for plaintiff’s men until such time.as plaintiff had reached coal in the mine which he could mine at a profit.’ ”

Appellant says," “In view of the fact that several of the instructions requested by the defendant and refused by the court embody the same principle under different expressions, they will not all be discussedsunder separate heads.” Appellant [317]*317discusses his assignment of errors under four heads, contending, first, that “plaintiff sues in this case for the breach of the contract which he alleges he made individually with the defendant. The testimony of the- plaintiff himself shows beyond question that no individual contract was made between plaintiff and defendant, but that, if any contract was made, it was made between the defendant, on the one side, and the plaintiff, together with Ab Freese, on the other; it being made by the plaintiff and Ab Freese as partners.” Both appellee and Freese testify that appellee bought Freese out, and that Freese quit the work not long after the commencement of the same, and the record shows that appellant renewed the contract with appellee, as shown by the testimony, of appellant, as follows: "* * * Then Nowlin came to me and said: ‘Freese has quit me, and what is the show for me to continue the work. I have gone in and done some work, and I can handle that just as well as Freese could.' And I told him that was all right — I would look for him to give me some coal; and he said, ‘Well, will you agree to furnish me just the same as you did Freese;’ and I said, ‘Certainly. All I can give you is the cars, and you have an engine and boiler there, and that is all I will give you.’ * * *”

In Enc. of Pl. & Pr. vol. 15, pp. 882, 883, it is said:

“Under statutes requiring actions to be prosecuted by the real parties in interest, and authorizing assignees to sue in their own names, where a partner retires, and the firm claims are assigned to the remaining partners or to a new firm, the remaining partners or the new firm may sue thereon without joining the former member; and, irrespective of whether or not choses in action are assignable, if the retiring partner transfers the claim to the remaining partners or a new firm, and the debtor agrees to accept them as his creditors in place of the old firm, they may sue without joining the retired partner.”

[318]*318And on pages 715 and 716 the same rule is stated as applying to the federal courts:

“Under the code, however, the assignee of a cause of action arising ex contractu, • which can properly be assigned, is the real party in interest, and, as such, may maintain the action in his own name.
“ (bb) In Federal Courts. By virtue of the practice conformity act, an assignee of a cause of action arising ex contractu may, as the real party in interest, sue in his own name in .the federal courts sitting in code states, and that, too, according to some decisions, though the assignor retains an interest in the cause of action assigned. But before the adoption of this act the rule was otherwise.”

Citing Arkansas Valley Smelting Co. vs Belden Min. Co., 127 U. S. 379, 8 Sup. Ct. 1308, 32 L. Ed. 246; Delaware County vs Diebold Safe, etc., Co., 133 U. S. 475, 10 Sup. Ct. 399, 33 L. Ed. 674.

Section 4933, Mansf. Dig. (Ind. Ter. St. 1899, § 3138), says: “Every action must be prosecuted in the name of the real party in interest, except as provided in sections 3140, 3141, 3143.” In Molen vs Orr, 44 Ark. 486, the court said: “In an action by one partner in his own name on a firm claim that had been assigned to him by the retired partner, that thpre was a variance between the proof and the allegations in the complaint, there is no question; but the materiality of the variance is not to be determined, as at common law, by the incoherence of the two statements on their face. It must 'be shown by the party alleging the variance that he has been misled to his prejudice. Mansf. Dig. § 5075 (Ind. Ter. St. 1899, § 3280); Burke vs Snell, 42 Ark. 57.” Parsons on Partnership, page 358, says: “At [319]*319common law no assignment of a debt due a partnership by one of the partners will authorize a suit in the name of the assignee. If, however, the assent of the debtor sufficiently appear, the action by the assignee in his own name is upon a new contract substituted for the old, and will be upheld.”

The appellant's second contention is stated as follows: “At the time the plaintiff and his partner, Ab Freese, went to work upon the coal mine in question, it was understood that they should do those things necessary to the taking out of the coal and loading same upon the cars. No payment was to be made by the defendant for the work so done, but the preparations for taking out the coal were to be at the expense of these two parties, and such materials, if any, as were to be furnished by the.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
82 S.W. 758, 5 Indian Terr. 312, 1904 Indian Terr. LEXIS 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/degnan-v-nowlin-ctappindterr-1904.