Mason v. Bullock

50 So. 432, 6 Ala. App. 141, 1912 Ala. App. LEXIS 46
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 12, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 50 So. 432 (Mason v. Bullock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mason v. Bullock, 50 So. 432, 6 Ala. App. 141, 1912 Ala. App. LEXIS 46 (Ala. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinion

PELHAM, J.

The transcript in this case presents something over 17 pages of pleadings, and the court’s rulings thereon, upon which many assignments of error are predicated, but a careful consideration of the entire record shows that the appellant, as plaintiff in the court below, was not injured by any of the court’s rulings on the pleadings or prevented from putting his entire case before the court and jury. Nor was the plaintiff injured in being required to take issue on any plea setting up illegal or immaterial matter of defense. We will not then pause to consider that part of the case.

The real questions presented go to the vitals of the case, and we will confine our discussion to those questions. They relate to the action of the court in giving [144]*144the general charge for the defendant on the issues tendered by the defendant’s pleas setting up a submission to and an arbitration and award on the subject-matter of the suit before suit thereon was brought.

The plaintiff brought his suit in assumpsit on the common counts, and bases his right to recover on a series of transactions with the defendant originally growing out of the purchase by the plaintinff from the defendant of a yoke of oxen, by the terms of which contract of sale the plaintiff agreed to cut and haul logs for the defendant at a certain price. Part of the earnings as they respectively became due were to be retained by the defendant and applied as a credit on the purchase price of the oxen. The transactions involve a return of the oxen and divers and sundry differences in connection with the proper amount to be credited for the logs cut, charges for merchandise sold by plaintiff to defendant and his hands at plaintiff’s commissary, and. charges for board furnished to the hands of the defendant by the plaintiff. Together with other defenses interposed, the defendant set up in bar of plaintiff’s action several pleas averring that the plaintiff and defendant had submitted to arbitration all the matters in controversy between them for which suit had been brought by the plaintiff, and alleging that an award had been made before suit was brought. It is manifest from an examination of the evidence set out in the bill of exceptions that the court gave the general charge requested by the defendant, on the theory that the evidence without conflict established the allegations of these pleas.

It is the plaintiff’s contention on this proposition that he withdrew from the arbitration agreed upon and revoked the authority of the arbitrators before an award was .made. This is controverted by the defendant, who [145]*145claims that an award was made before any action was taken by tbe plaintiff looking to a revocation and that wbat the plaintiff did do in that direction was not, as a matter of law, tantamount to a withdrawal and revocation. Tbe defendant also makes the point that, after tbe parties bad agreed to submit to arbitration and bad actually submitted tbe matters in controversy to tbe arbitrators, they could not then withdraw and revoke tbe authority of tbe arbitrators.

Tbe authorities are in some conflict on tbe right of a party to withdraw and revoke after submission to arbitration, but tbe rule, supported by wbat seems to be by far the greater weight of tbe better considered authorities, is that either party may revoke a submission to arbitration at any time before an award is made and published, where the submission is not made a rule of tbe court, or otherwise regulated by statute; that is, when, as here, tbe arbitration is a common-law arbitration, then either party may revoke before final award, and tbe remedy of tbe other party is an action on a breach of tbe agreement to submit, to recover damages, if any, caused by tbe revocation of tbe other party.— O. & W. Mortgage Saving Bank v. American Mortgage Co. (C. C.) 35 Fed. 22; Allen v. Watson, 16 Johns. (N. Y.) 205; Jones v. Harris, 59 Miss. 214; Sidlinger v. Kerkow, 82 Cal. 42, 22 Pac. 932; Leonard v. House, 15 Ga. 473; Davis v. Maxwell, 27 Ga. 368; Paulsen v. Manske, 24 Ill. App. 95; s. c., 126 Ill. 72, 18 N. E. 275, 9 Am. St. Rep. 532; Peters v. Craig, 6 Dana (36 Ky.) 307; Brown v. Leavitt, 26 Me. 251; Donnell v. Lee, 58 Mo. App. 288; Wright v. Cobleigh, 21 N. H. (1 Foster) 339; Norfleet v. Southall, 7 N. C. (3 Murphy) 189; Wood v. Finn, 1 Clark (3 Pa. Law J. 31) 396; Erie v. Tracy, 2 Grant, Cas. (Pa.) 20; Johnson v. Andress, 5 Phila. (Pa.) 8; Huston v. Clark, 12 Phila. (Pa.) 383; [146]*146Id., 9 Wkly. Notes Cas. (Pa.) 316; Rogers v. Nall, 6 Humph. (26 Tenn.) 29; Aspinwall v. Tousey, 2 Tyler (Vt.) 328; Marsh v. Packer, 20 Vt. 198; Rison v. Moon, 91 Va. 384, 22 S. E. 165; People v. Nash, 13 N. Y. Civ. Proc. R. 301; Long v. Long, 9 Va. (5 Call) 431; Sartwell v. Sowles, 72 Vt. 270, 48 Atl. 11, 82 Am. St. Rep. 943. This is the rule that has been adopted, or at least stated as the proper rule,, in this state. — Wolff v. Shelton’s Ex’rs, 51 Ala. 425. See, also, Morse on Arbitration & Awards, 229, 230; 3 Cyc. 610, and list of authorities cited in note 22 on that and the succeeding page.

It is not disputed but that all of the matters in controversy involved in the suit were submitted by an oral agreement of the parties to arbitration and were considered by the arbitrators and a written award rendered by the arbitrators subsequent to the bringing of this suit by the plaintiff. It is contended by the defendant that prior to- the written award, and before suit brought, a verbal award was rendered, and that plaintiff’s suit- is barred because of this award. The plaintiff’s position is that the verbal award was not, in fact, or in law, an award, and that he withdrew from the arbitration and revoked the authority of the arbitrators before the final award was made.

The plaintiff testified on the trial that, on the same day the arbitrators first met and heard the evidence, one of the arbitrators came to him later in the day and told him that they had decided that the defendant owed him 25 cents, “but that they would like to have some further testimony from me (plaintiff), and they would set another day for me to bring another witness before them.” Afterwards another day was set by the arbitrators for hearing the evidence, and two witnesses were examined by them. Only two- of-the three arbitrators were present at this hearing; the arbitrator select-[147]*147eel by the plaintiff being absent. After the plaintiff had interposed an objection to proceeding without the other arbitrator, and after considerable discussion, it was finally agreed that the evidence of the witnesses be taken down in writing by one of the arbitrators and that afterwards the three arbitrators should get together and pass on the evidence. During the progress of the proceedings in reducing the testimony of the witnesses to Avriting a controversy arose between plaintiff and the arbitrator writing the testimony of the witnesses about the testimony being incorrectly written by him, and the plaintiff stated to the arbitrators that “he saw he Avas not going to get justice and that he did not intend to have anything more to do with the matter,” and thereupon withdrew from the hearing and took no further part in the proceedings and brought this suit in a day or two thereafter.

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Bluebook (online)
50 So. 432, 6 Ala. App. 141, 1912 Ala. App. LEXIS 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mason-v-bullock-alactapp-1912.