Huguley v. Morris & Tumlin

65 Ga. 666
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedSeptember 15, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 65 Ga. 666 (Huguley v. Morris & Tumlin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Huguley v. Morris & Tumlin, 65 Ga. 666 (Ga. 1880).

Opinion

Jackson, Chief Justice.

Suit was brought by Huguley against Morris & Tumlin on a joint and several note, signed Morris & Tumlin, for $1,050.00. Morris put the signature, Morris & Tumlin, to the note. Tumlin pleaded that he did not sign it or authorize anybody to sign it for him. The reply was that Morris & Tumlin were partners, and therefore Morris had power to sign the note as he did; or that if they were not partners, Morris was Tumlin’s agent in the business out of which the note sprang, and therefore he was empowered in law to sign Tumlin’s name to it. The jury found a verdict for plaintiff against Morris, but in favor of Tumlin’s administrator, who had been made a party, against [669]*669the plaintiff, who made a motion for a new trial on three grounds: first, that the court charged the law erroneously, second, that the verdict is contrary to law, and third, contrary to the evidence.

The exception to the charge is general, going to the entire charge without specifying particular errors, and cannot be considered in view of many rulings of this court. The question, therefore, is narrowed to the one point: Is the

verdict contrary to law under the evidence ? and that depends on this, was Morris authorized by law to sign Tum. lin’s name to the note and to bind his estate ?

1. Did the facts make them partners ? The partnership was formed in 1859, prior to any Code of Georgia, and to the definition of a partnership as to third persons therein given. Code, §1890.

Therefore the case of Sankey & Shorter vs. Columbus Iron Works, 44 Ga., 228, would not rule this, even if the point there decided covered this case; for that case arose after the adoption of the Code, and construed section 1890 of it, which makes either “ a joint interest in the partnership property, or a joint interest in the profits and losses of the business, constitute a partnership as to third persons,” and which declares that “ a common interest in profits alone does not.” The question is, what constituted a partnership in Georgia as to third persons before the Code? In Buckner vs. Lee et al., 8 Ga., 285, this court, Judge NlSBET delivering the opinion, said: “A community of property and an agreement to share in the losses and profits of a business, or community of losses and profits alone, will make the parties partners. But there may be a partnership without such community and agreement. There may be a partnership where there is no community of property, no agreement to share in the losses and profits, and no community of losses—that is to say, an agreement that one of the parties shall receive a proportion of the net profits of the concern, for money advanced for its use or property furnished for its use (as [670]*670here), will constitute a legal partnership as to third persons.” The judge then goes on to cite Story on Part., §§66,67, 68, 69, 70; Collier on Part, 28 ; 2 W. Blackstone, 928 ; 2 H. Blackstone, 235 ; 12 Conn., 69; 18 Wend., 175 ; 20 Ib., 70; 17 Vesey, 204; 1 Rose, 91 ; Carey on Part., 11, note; 1 Hill, 526; I Iredell, 199; 38 Eng. C. Law, 49S ; and concludes that “ if one is to receive a certain proportion of the profits—as one-third or one-half—as profits, he is a partner. If a certain sum is agreed to be paid out of profits, and the party does not look to that alone for payment, he is not a partner; but if the sum to be paid is not fixed, but may be increased or diminished by the amount or accidents of the business, then the receiver is a partner,” and the ruling of the whole court is, that “ upon an agreement between Lee and Everett that Lee should take certain negroes of Everett, and work them in a blacksmith shop, furnish all supplies, pay all expenses, and give Everett one-half of the net proceeds of the shop for the use of the negroes, that, as to third persons, they were partners.”

It would seem that under this ruling, even if it were clear that in the case at bar Morris was to' bear all expenses of this venture of the sale of the negroes Tumlin bought for him to sell, and yet Tumlin and himself were to share the net profits, they would be partners. But there is some confusion in the record on that point. Nothing is said as to losses, for the reason that neither anticipated loss in the sale of the slaves ; and while one part of Morris’ testimony, as given in the record, would seem to imply that he was to bear the expenses, Tumlin does not so swear, and there is certainly no express contract as to losses.

In Perry vs. Butt & Banks—14 Ga.—it is -ruled that, “If three persons agree to sell goods, two of them contributing $3000.00 each, and the other rendering his personal services, the profits to be equally divided after the payment of' debts and expenses, and with no stipulation as to losses, whether this constitutes them partners or [671]*671not as between themselves, it does as to third persons.” In that case, Judge LUMPKIN says: “The truth is in the absence of any express agreement to the contrary, the law, under this partnership in profits, devolves the losses likewise upon each and all of the partners. And that not only to the extent of the capital employed, but over and beyond it.” And he cites Story’s definition of partnership as a remarkable fact, that it says nothing about loss, but defines it to be “a voluntary contract between two or more persons to place their money, effects, labor, skill, or some or all of them, in lawful commerce or business, with the understanding that thére shall be a communion of the profits thereof betzveen them."

That able judge then adds: “State the present case to any plain man of jeason and ordinary' intelligence, that Butt, Banks & Tillinghast agreed to engage in trade in Columbus; that the two former, having funds, were to put in $3000.00 each, and the latter, possessing superior skill and experience in business, was to give his personal services and attention, and that they were to divide the net profits equally, would he have any hesitation in pronouncing this a partnership ? And if told that it might be so as to Butt & Banks, but not as to Tillinghast—that the law looked upon him as an agent merely—would he not be bewildered at such metaphysicality ?” And then he confesses to the same inability himself to draw such distinctions, and adds:

“But whether a community of profits constitutes these persons partners inter se or not, it never has been questioned in any respectable quarter, that it would undoubtedly make them answerable to third persons, to whom they have held themselves out, and with whom they have contracted, as partners, and who cannot be affected by these secret contracts as between themselves.”

Mr. Justice Story in his work on Partnership—§54— enumerates five distinct classifications wherein parties are partners as to third persons, the third of which is in these [672]*672words: “Thirdly, where the profit is to be shared between the parties as principals in like manner, but the loss, if any occurs beyond the profit, is to be borne exclusively by one party only.” See also the same work from §53 to §70 inclusive.

It would seem therefore from the two cases cited from our own decisions in the 8th Ga., and 14th Ga., as well as from the above classification of Judge Story, that the facts of this case, occurring prior to the Code, make a partnership under Georgia law as it was before the Code.

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65 Ga. 666, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/huguley-v-morris-tumlin-ga-1880.