H. A. Caesar & Co. v. Banks Bros.

7 Pa. D. & C. 212, 1926 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 345
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedFebruary 12, 1926
DocketNo. 345
StatusPublished

This text of 7 Pa. D. & C. 212 (H. A. Caesar & Co. v. Banks Bros.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
H. A. Caesar & Co. v. Banks Bros., 7 Pa. D. & C. 212, 1926 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 345 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1926).

Opinion

Lewis, J.,

This attachment under the Act of March 17,1869, P. L. 8, as amended by the Act of May 24, 1887, P. L. 197, was issued under the caption “H. A. Caesar & Co. v. Banks Brothers, also trading as Quaker City Shade Co.” Rules were granted on plaintiff to show cause why the writ should not be quashed or the attachment dissolved. In the petition for the rules, Albert Banks and Israel Banks set forth as the reasons for quashing or dissolving the attachment, first, “the designation of both parties, plaintiff and defendant, is improper and insufficient to support the action, since neither is a corporation;” second, the debt was not due at the time of the attachment; third, that Albert Banks, one of the Banks Brothers, had no interest of any kind in the business conducted by his brother, Israel Banks, under the name of Quaker City Shade Company, and that the said Quaker City Shade Company never had any transactions with the plaintiff; and fourth, that there was no fraud in the transaction, as had been averred in the affidavit upon which the attachment issued.

Before any action was taken on these rules, plaintiff filed a petition, upon which a rule to show cause was granted, for leave to amend the names of the [213]*213parties to the action so as to read: “C. G. Aschmann & Company, to the use of H. A. Caesar, Harry I. Caesar, Chas. U. Caesar, J. A. Larkin, trading as H. A. Caesar & Company, v. Albert Banks and Israel Banks, copartners, trading as Banks Brothers.” C. G. Aschmann & Company had actually sold to defendants the goods, for payment of which this action was brought, but assigned the account to their factors, H. A. Caesar & Co.

If plaintiff is entitled to have its rule made absolute, most of the objections of defendants to the state of the record as not sustaining the attachment will be disposed of thereby. It is vigorously contended on behalf of defendants that the amendment should not be allowed, for the reason, as defendants contend, that its effect would be to substitute entirely new parties not theretofore appearing on the record. If this is so, it is clear, under the cases, that we must not allow the amendment; the broad powers of amending records by adding or changing the names of parties as granted to the courts by the legislature in the Acts of April 16, 1846, §( 2, P. L. 353, and May 4, 1852, § 2, P. L. 574, have been judicially limited in this respect. The oft-quoted rule concerning amendments is to be found in White Co. v. Payette Automobile Co., 43 Pa. Superior Ct. 532, in which the language of the Supreme Court is used: “Statutes of amendment are liberally construed to give effect to their clearly-defined intent so as to prevent a defeat of justice through a mere mistake as to parties or the form of action. Amendments, however, will not be allowed to the prejudice of the other party by introducing a new cause of action or bringing in a new party or changing the capacity in which he is sued. A party whose name it is asked to amend must be in court. If the effect of the amendment will be to correct the name under1, which the right party was sued, it should be allowed; if its effect will be to bring a new party on the record, it should be refused: Wright v. Eureka Tempered Copper Co., 206 Pa. 274.”

The test, then, is that the party whose name it is asked to amend must be in court. Although not generally limited in the language employed by the courts, it would appear from a study of the cases that this test or rule is properly applied only when it is sought to amend the name of the defendant. The last sentence of the quotation from White Co. v. Fayette Automobile Co., 43 Pa. Superior Ct. 532, adds strength to the supposition that the general rule is so limited. Applying the test to the facts of this case, we entertain no doubt but that plaintiff is entitled to the amendment, so far as the names of the defendants are concerned. “Banks Brothers” were named in the original writ; the proposed amendment is to designate the defendants as “Albert Banks and Israel Banks, copartners, trading as Banks Brothers.” Are Albert Banks and Israel Banks in court? They are, for it was they who filed the petition to have the writ and attachment quashed or dissolved. In that petition they set forth that they are copartners carrying on business as Banks Brothers; that their business has been attached in this action, and that they are indebted to the plaintiffs in the amount for which the attachment issued. There can be no question, under these facts, that the effect of this amendment “will be to correct the name under which the right party was sued,” and that its effect will not be “to bring a new party on the record.”

In coming to this conclusion, we are not unmindful of the cases such as Markowitz v. Ararat Dye Works, 73 Pa. Superior Ct. 129; Girardi v. Laquin Lumber Co., 232 Pa. 1; White Co. v. Fayette Automobile Co., 43 Pa. Superior Ct. 532, and Tonge v. Item Publishing Co., 244 Pa. 417, and were it not for the fact that Albert Banks and Israel Banks are already so clearly in court, we would be more concerned with these decisions, although they are, we think, [214]*214distinguishable. In White Co. v. Fayette Automobile Co., 43 Pa. Superior Ct. 532, after an action was begun against “Fayette Automobile Company,” an amendment was refused, the purpose of which was to designate as defendants A, B, C, D and E, “partners, doing business as the Fayette Automobile Company, Incorporated.” In the course of the opinion, then Judge Orlady said: “The exact character of the first named defendant is not shown, but whether existent or non-existent, is a person and not a corporation. The five named defendants to be substituted are designated as partners, doing business as the ‘Fayette Automobile Company, Incorporated,’ certainly different and independent defendants, who were not in court at the time the amendment was requested.”

In Markowitz v. Ararat Dye Works, 73 Pa. Superior Ct. 129, the defendant was first designated as “Ararat Dye Works, a corporation.” This was a nonexistent corporation, so that the court said the writ as served brought no person within the jurisdiction of the court. The proposed amendment was to name as defendants A and B, trading as Ararat Dye Works, and to strike out the words “a corporation.” It was held that such an amendment should not be allowed, since there was nothing on the record to show what persons the court had acquired jurisdiction of up to that point in the proceedings. In Girardi v. Laquin Lumber Co., 232 Pa. 1, suit was brought against “Laquin Lumber Co., a corporation.” After the statute of limitations had run, it was moved to amend by designating defendants as Laquin Lumber Co., a partnership composed of A, B, C, D, E and F, trading as copartners. The Superior Court held that the amendment was rightfully refused. A later decision to the same, effect is found in the case of Tonge v. Item Publishing Co., 244 Pa. 417. The fact that in each of these cases the name of a corporation was present probably had much to do with the decision.

Other cases might be cited in which the courts have held amendments not allowable. In Coyne v. Lakeside Electric Ry. Co., 227 Pa. 496, an amendment was refused, after the running of the statute of limitations, proposing to change the name of the defendant to another corporation, the lessees of the original defendant corporation. In Stine v. Herr, Admin’x, 78 Pa. Superior Ct.

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