McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. v. McKee

16 N.W. 796, 51 Mich. 426, 1883 Mich. LEXIS 600
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 10, 1883
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 16 N.W. 796 (McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. v. McKee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. v. McKee, 16 N.W. 796, 51 Mich. 426, 1883 Mich. LEXIS 600 (Mich. 1883).

Opinion

Sherwood, J.

Tbe plaintiff, a foreign corporation organized under tbe laws of the state of Illinois, on the 13th day of December, 1880, and for a long time previous thereto, was doing business in the village of Kalamazoo. During said period one Solomon L. Beardsley acted as general agent for, and conducted the business of, said plaintiff at Kalamazoo, which was selling agricultural implements and machinery manufactured by them; and during the same period said Beardsley, John C. Bloom and said defendant John McKee, Jr., entered into a copartnership for the purpose of selling agricultural implements in Kalamazoo county, under the name of John McKee, Jr. & Co., each to furnish to the firm five hundred dollars as capital stock. Said firm received and sold the goods of the plaintiff, and had an account with it. Beardsley had the principal charge and management of [428]*428the business of the firm, and particularly the financial department.

In the fall of 1879 J. McKee, Jr. & Co. owed a debt of five hundred dollars. Beardsley raised the money to pay it; did so by obtaining John McKee, Jr.’s, note for the amount, signed by his father, the other defendant, as surety, running to C. II. & L. J. McCormick or order, (the name under which the plaintiffs were then doing business,) due on the first day of March, 1880. This note was delivered to Beardsley who furnished the money thereon from the funds of the plaintiff then under his control, as was understood at the time by defendant J. McKee, Jr., and was by him regarded as representing his part of the capital stock of the company. On the 13th day of December, 1880, this note was renewed by the defendants, and the first note taken up. The business was done by Beardsley.

Suit is now brought by the plaintiff to recover the amount due on this last note. The declaration is on the common counts, with notice that plaintiff would introduce the note in evidence thereundei*. Plea, general issue, with notice of set-off, accompanied by an affidavit of defendant J ohn McKee, Jr., denying the delivery of the note to the plaintiff or to any person for it. Defendants also claim that when said note was made and delivered to said Beardsley, it was with the understanding and agreement upon his part that he should not deliver it to the plaintiff, but should himself hold the same till |?aid, and that when so paid it' should be from the funds of the firm of John McKee, Jr. & Co., and that defendants should neyer have any- trouble on account of the note. The plaintiff’s counsel claim that at the time this new note was given, Beardsley had an account of his own as agent; and also one of John McKee, Jr. & Co. to settle with plaintiff; that John McKee, Jr. & Co. owed the plaintiff, and that this new note was taken in the then name of the plaintiff, at the request of said Beardsley, and the payment postponed a few months to enable him to use it with the plaintiff in making his settlements with the company; that in four days .thereafter Beardsley went to the plaintiff in [429]*429Chicago, and in his settlement with its agent of the account of John McKee, Jr. & Co. he turned out the note in suit to plaintiff, it giving said firm credit therefor on plaintiff’s books.

The case was tried at the circuit by jury, and upon the theory of the parties, as above stated. The jury, under the evidence and charge of the court, -returned a verdict for’the plaintiff for six hundred and twenty-two dollars and ninety-nine cents. The case comes before us on error, alleging exceptions to the rulings on the trial, and to the charge of the court.

The defendants objected to the introduction of the note in evidence on the ground that the proof of execution and delivery was insufficient. Under the previous decisions of this Court the objection is not well taken. Burson v. Huntington 21 Mich. 415.

Defendants’ counsel proposed to show that a partnership was talked of between John McKee, Jr., John C. Bloom, Solomon Beardsley and one Hoffman, for the purpose of selling the plaintiff’s machines and others, a few months before the first note was given. This was objected to as irrelevant, and the objection was sustained, and, as we think, very properly, as the proposed testimony had no connection with the note in suit or the dealings of the parties out of which the note originated.

The third alleged error is based upon the exclusion of testimony which does not appear in the record. The defendant sought to show what funds were in the hands of John McKee, Jr. & Co., and that Beardsley had charge of and used them. The court held the testimony irrelevant. This ruling was correct. It had no bearing upon the issue.

The court subsequently admitted the evidence objected tó and ruled out, mentioned in the defendants’ fifth assignment of error.

On the fifteenth day of December, 1881, Beardsley was short in his accounts with the plaintiffs, and they sent Mr. Everts to take charge of their business, then in the hands of [430]*430Beardsley and John McKee, Jr. & Co., and in doing so be took possession, as the testimony tended to sbow, of wbat ■effects he could find in the safe of John McKee, Jr. & Co., which were turned over to him by said Beardsley. Defendants’ counsel proposed to show, as offset, what they took possession of. To this proposition objection was made that it was irrelevant and immaterial, and that it was not the property of the defendants. The court correctly sustained the objection. John McKee, Jr. & Co. were not parties to ■the suit, and had no interests therein to be adjudicated.

TJnder the seventh assignment of error the defendant •obtained the testimony his question called for, and the error complained of under the eighth assignment

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Related

Carmichael v. Schaefer Heights Land Co.
186 N.W. 481 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1922)

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Bluebook (online)
16 N.W. 796, 51 Mich. 426, 1883 Mich. LEXIS 600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccormick-harvesting-machine-co-v-mckee-mich-1883.