Nevada Co. v. Farnsworth

89 F. 164, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 3035
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Utah
DecidedSeptember 12, 1898
DocketNo. 276
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 89 F. 164 (Nevada Co. v. Farnsworth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nevada Co. v. Farnsworth, 89 F. 164, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 3035 (circtdut 1898).

Opinion

MARSHALL, District Judge.

MARSHALL, District Judge. The case made by the complaint is this: The plaintiff intrusted to the defendant, its agent, large sums oí money with which to make certain payments. The defendant paid a portion of the money in accordance with the instructions, but retained a large part, and converted the same to his own use. The complaint, however, does not proceed in tort for the conversion, but ex contractu for money had and received to the plaintiff’s use. In aid of the action, an attachment was sued out and levied on property of the defendant, who now moves to discharge the same on the following grounds: (1) That the plaintiff’s cause of action is not based upon an express or implied contract; (2) that the debt or obligation is not shown to have been fraudulently contracted.

The statutes of Utah only permit of an attachment in an action upon a judgment, or upon a contract, express or implied; and it is urged with much force that, treating the action as in assumpsit, it is bast'd upon a quasi contract, which it is a misnomer to call an implied contract, wanting, as it is, in most of the elements of a true contract. The whole theory of contracts implied in law was originated for the purpose of giving a remedy ex contracta for certain wrongs, and it does not promote clear thinking to embrace in one classification two filings so essentially different as an obligation based on the consent of the parties and one imposed by law, from motives of public policy, frequently against the intention of the parties. But, however unscientific such a classification is, simple implied contracts are usually subdivided into contracts implied in fact and contracts implied in law. The first, it is needless to say, is a true contract, the agreement of the parties'being inferred from the circumstances; the latter but a duty imposed by law, and treated as a contract for the purposes of a remedy only. This classification of implied contracts makes it difficult to interpret a statute where the term is used. In each case; it becomes a question whether the general meaning, or fhe more limited, if more accurate, meaning, was, by the legislature, intended. This legislative intent must be sought in the particular statute in question, but, in the absence of any light thrown thereon by ihe language or object of ihe statute, or of other statutes in pari materia, it must be held, I think, that the legislature intended that meaning which is commonly assigned to the words, even if such definition be less accurate or scientific. In this case it is urged that Ihe statute has mentioned judgments and contracts, express or implied. That the expression of judgments, a species of quasi contracts, shows that the legislature did not intend to include under implied contracts such contracts as are implied in law. In the usual classification of contracts, judgments are classified as contracts of record, and simple contracts are subdivided into express contracts and implied contracts; and I think that it was the memory of this classification which' caused the framers of the statute to treat judgments as different from implied [166]*166contracts. There is nothing in the object of the statute which warrants the inference that it was intended to discriminate in favor of the wrongdoer. There is a plain reason why attachments were not permitted in actions sounding in damages, for, if allowed in such actions, property of the defendant might be incumbered in an amount altogether out of proportion to the sum finally recovered. But in assumpsit, where the tort is waived, the sum sued for is the benefit unjustly retained by the defendant; not the damage to the plaintiff, usually more uncertain in amount. Keener, Quasi Cont. 160. There is nothing in the wording of the statute which would warrant a holding that the legislature used the term “implied contract” in other than its usual meaning, or that contracts implied in law were not intended to be included. The weight of authority supports this conclusion.

The question was raised in Bank v. Fonda, 65 Mich. 533-536, 32 N. W. 664, 665, — a case similar to this, and under a similar statute,— and Chief Justice Campbell, in giving judgment, said:

“It is sufficient to say that, when the statute gives the remedy in cases of express and implied contract, we have no authority to graft an exception on the statute, and hold that there are differences in implied contracts; and that, where an action of tort will lie, the fact that assumpsit will also lie does not make the case one of contract. This distinction, if attempted, would lead to great confusion. In cases of bailment, there has always been a choice of forms of action between actions on the case and assumpsit, which is itself really an action on the ease. Oase lies for breach of duty, and assumpsit for breach of promise. A duty certainly arises out of promises; and the law implies a promise out of most duties. Whatever authorizes the implication of a promise authorizes a suit in assumpsit for its breach. That is the essence of the doctrine of implied assumpsit, and any further refinement on this doctrine would lead to no good end. There is no such equity in favor of wrongdoers that exceptions should be created in their favor.”

To the same effect are Elwell v. Martin, 32 Vt. 217, and Gould v. Baker (Tex. Civ. App., 1896) 35 S. W. 708. The authorities are collected in 3 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, 192.

In Fuel Co. v. Tuck, 53 Cal. 304, the defendant agreed to manufacture certain machines for plaintiff, and deliver them within a specified time. A part of the purchase money was advanced to defendant, who failed to complete the machines within the time limited. The plaintiff thereupon sued to recover the money advanced, upon the ground that the consideration upon which it was paid had wholly failed. An attachment was sued out in aid of the action, and defendant sought to have the same discharged, for the reason that the cause of action did not arise upon a contract express or implied. The court said that “the authorities appear to be uniform to the effect that, where a sum of money has been paid upon a consideration which has entirely failed, the law implies a promise to refund-if’; and the attachment was sustained.

In Tabor v. Mining Co., 11 Fed. 636, Judge Hallett, in concluding that the Colorado statute did not permit an attachment in a suit for the proceeds of ore converted by defendant, — a result clearly warranted by the course of legislation on the subject in Colorado, as shown in the opinion,- — distinguished the case of Fuel Co. v. Tuck by saying that the implied contract in that case “may be assigned to the class of [167]*167tacit agreements already mentioned, which, if not expressed in words, are evincible from the acts of (he parties, and stand fully within their intention.” The case at bar can be similarly distinguished from Tabor v. Mining Oo. Wherever a definite duty arises out of a contract or contract relation, a promise to perform that duty may, without violence, he considered as a term of the contract implied in fact. A. principle of law attaches it. to the contract, and the parties are conclusively presumed to contract with reference to such principle.

In Pollock on Contracts (page 11), in discussing this question, the author says:

■‘Sometimes, no doubt, it is difficult to draw the line. ‘Where a relation exists between two parties which involves the performance of certain duties by one of them, and tlie payment of reward to him by the other, the la,w will imply (fictitious eon(ract) or the jury may infer (true contract) a promise by each party to do what is to he done by him.’ Morgan v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
89 F. 164, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 3035, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nevada-co-v-farnsworth-circtdut-1898.