Donald v. Phillips

13 S.W.2d 74
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 6, 1929
DocketNo. 1157-5125
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 13 S.W.2d 74 (Donald v. Phillips) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Donald v. Phillips, 13 S.W.2d 74 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1929).

Opinion

Statement of the Case.

NICKELS, J.

Donald sued Phillips April 21, 1925. His allegations are: (a) In “the Summer of 1917” the parties “formed a partnership” and entered upon the partnership business of “purchasing, owning, handling and selling steers,” “operating under the firm [75]*75name of Phillips & Donald,” and continuing the business “until the Spring of 1923” (by which time, it is inferable, all assets had been given disposition), (b) “It was agreed and understood between said partners” that Donald “would furnish the money necessary * * * and should he paid interest” (in-ferably, at 10 per centum per annum) “on all moneys so advanced.” (c) “It was also understood and agreed that both plaintiff and defendant should look after the buying and selling of the cattle * * * and that defendant should look after and care for the cattle * * * and in general supervise the feeding,” etc. (d) “On or about November 3, 1919, plaintiff and defendant had an accounting and settlement of all their firm business, which accounting showed a loss of $519.90 by said partnership” which * * * was paid by * • * plaintiff alone * * * and it was agreed at the time said accounting was had that the defendant was indebted to plaintiff for one-half of said * * * loss” (i. e., one-half of $519.90). (e) Subsequently, “plaintiff furnished and advanced * * * to said partnership” $37,959.55 and received back (from all proceeds of cattle sales, from a “forfeit” and a “rebate”) $32,715.46. (f) “Said partnership” became “indebted to the defendant on account of. labor, forage, cake, hauling expenses, windmill repairs, etc., with interest thereon to May 1, 1925, the sum of $2,209.80” which represents the only part of the “losses” of the business borne by defendant. (g) Plaintiff has borne “losses” of the business to the extent of $11,602.90 (inclusive of interest calculated to “May 1, 1925”). (h) Total “losses,” therefore, amount to the sum of $13,812.70, on account of which, and in view of the disparity of burdens thereof heretofore borne respectively by the parties, defendant is due plaintiff the sum of $4,696.65. (i) Plaintiff loaned defendant individually $200, which is unpaid and on which $86.14 interest has accrued; defendant loaned plaintiff individually moneys aggregating (with accrued interest) $424.67. (j) Hence, the final “balance” to which the plaintiff is entitled is the/ sum of $4,558.02.

There is attached to, and made a part of, the petition “Exhibit A,” setting up details of “advancements” and receipts by plaintiff (except for the period antedating November 3, 1919, alleged date of the alleged “settlement”), and including interest charges to May 1. 1925. The latest “cattle sale” shown is of date October 20,1921, and “losses” (with interest) thus shown to have been borne by plaintiff to and including that date (and with receipt by plaintiff of all proceeds of that and other sales) amount to $8,792.84. Those “losses” are shown (in the exhibit) to have increased to $11,602.90 through accrual of interest (on the $8,792.90) to May 1, 1925.' The exhibit omits any reference to the items, etc., making up the $2,209.80, alleged by plaintiff to have been “sustained” by Phillips.

Donald’s prayer is for “an accounting and settlement of the partnership business and affairs between plaintiff and defendant,” for formal dissolution, for recovery from Phillips of “the amount due and owing ⅜ * * by him on account of said partnership business as hereinbefore shown,” and for “such general or special relief to which he” (Donald) “may show himself entitled.”

Phillips, on oath, denied any partnership relation. “Further specially answering * * * and for cross-action” he averred: (k) In “the Summer of 1917” defendant owned 60 steer yearlings and had (under lease) “pasture lands” and had ranch equipment. Plaintiff bought “about 500 * * * steer yearlings” from third party. An agreement was made (and carried out) whereunder plaintiff bought from defendant the “sixty steer yearlings” mentioned and put them, with the 500 bought elsewhere, in defendant’s pasture to be “looked after and cared for by defendant” but at “cost and expense” (including lease rentals) of plaintiff. Compensation for defendant’s services was to be “one-half of all profits derived from the sale of said cattle after first deducting” original costs, interest thereon, and “expenses for caring for said cattle” and “interest thereon.” Some of these cattle were sold in “the Fall of 1917” and the others were sold about June 1, 1918. About June 1, 1918, the parties had a “settlement” of “all matters pertaining to said transaction,” in which plaintiff paid defendant $550 (i. e., one-half of the “agreed profits”) “as full compensation for defendant’s services.” (Z) A similar trade was made “about the first day of November 1918,” and carried out in respect to 344 cattle bought by plaintiff from third parties. These cattle were sold “about the first of November, 1919.” “There was no profits made in said cattle, and consequently defendant was not entitled to, and did not receive, any compensation” for his services rendered, (m) A similar agreement was made “about the first of October, 1919,” and carried out in respect to 675 cattle to be bought by plaintiff and bought by him in lots at various times “from about November first, 1919, to about May first, 1920.” Part of these cattle were sold “in the Fall of 1920,” and the remainder “in the Fall of 1921,” No profit was made. In caring for those cattle, defendant properly expended $1,459.25 in behalf of plaintiff. “About the first day of February,” following the last sale, “plaintiff and defendant had. a settlement,” wherein it was agreed that plaintiff owed and would pay defendant “said sum of $1,-459.25,” but the sum has not been paid, (n) “About April first,” 1922, plaintiff and defendant agreed to borrow, and did borrow, money on their “joint note,” with which to' buy “about 600 head of cattle” from “Halsell & Son.” “About the first day of April, 1923,” plaintiff and defendant made another agree-; ment, whereunder plaintiff took the cattle [76]*76bought from “Halsell & Son,” assumed the ■“joint indebtedness” mentioned, and became obligated to pay defendant $569.68 account of labor performed and expenses incurred by Mm in respect to these cattle. This sum has not been paid, (o) Outside the matters mentioned in (k), (1), (m), and (n), and on or prior to September 1, 1921, plaintiff owed defendant $159.25, and defendant owed plaintiff $200, which items were not taken into account in the “settlements” alleged.

Phillips prayed that Donald “take nothing by reason of his suit,” but that he (Phillips) “have judgment * * * on his cross-action” against Donald “for the said amounts of $1,457.25, with interest thereon from November first, 1921, at * * * 6% * * * and the further sum of $569.68, with interest * * » at 6% * * * from April 1, 1923,” plus general relief.

Donald, by supplemental petition, denied .generally Phillips’ averments.

Special issue No. 1 (inquiring whether “the ■cattle business” of the parties, as carried on from the “Summer of 1917” to “date of the purchase of the cattle from Halsell & Son,” i. ■e., June 10,1922, was a “joint enterprise prosecuted for their joint account”) was answered “Yes.” In response to other “issues,” the jury found the sums of $8,792.84 and $1,657.25 as the “amount of loss sustained,” respectively, by Donald and by Phillips in the period commencing “in the Summer of 1917” and ending June 10, 1922 (i. e., ending with the purchase from “Halsell & Son”).

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Bluebook (online)
13 S.W.2d 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/donald-v-phillips-texcommnapp-1929.