Payne v. Jones

50 N.W. 8, 33 Neb. 260, 1891 Neb. LEXIS 168
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 21, 1891
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 50 N.W. 8 (Payne v. Jones) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Payne v. Jones, 50 N.W. 8, 33 Neb. 260, 1891 Neb. LEXIS 168 (Neb. 1891).

Opinion

Maxwell, J.

This action was brought by the defendants in error against the plaintiffs in error in the district court, of Cus[261]*261ter county, to recover for the conversion of a stock of goods and destruction of business.

On the trial 'of the cause the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants in error for the sum of $2,800. A motion for a new trial was thereupon filed and overruled, and judgment entered on the vei’dict.

A motion is now made to quash the bill of exceptions, because it was not submitted to the attorneys for the defendants in error within forty days after the adjournment of the court.

The trial took place before Judge Hamer, and he appears to have been absent from his district when an extension of time was sought, hence application was made to Judge Church, who extended the time ten days, within which the bill was prepared and submitted to the attorneys of the adverse party.

It is claimed that Judge Church had no authority thus to extend the time, and that his action in the premises was void. We think differently however. The statute authorizes a court to grant forty days from the time of final adjournment for parties to prepare bills of exceptions and submit them to the adverse parties. As it is frequently impossible to prepare bills in forty days, the statute authorizes a judge, upon a showing satisfactory to him, to extend the time an additional forty days in which to prepare the bill. This is a remedial statute, and is to be liberally construed in favor of justice. A judge is thus given power to extend the time in all to eighty days in which to prepare a bill of exceptions, and the reasons which induced him to extend such time are not open to Collateral inquiry. Motions of this kind are not to be encouraged, and probably the ends of justice would be subserved if the court, in all cases, would refuse to quash a bill of exceptions when duly sigued by the proper officer; but, however this may be, there is no solid ground for the motion in this case, and it is overruled.

[262]*2622. A motion is also made to strike certain' affidavits from the files. These purport to have been used in the court below, but are not preserved in the bill of exceptions. This motion must be sustained.

In a very large number of cases this court has held that evidence of any kind used on a hearing in the court below, to be available in this court, must be preserved in a bill of exceptions, otherwise there would be no assurance that such evidence had been so used and the court would be liable to be imposed upon.

3. The action is based on a breach of the following contract:

“Whereas L. R. Jones and Neils Anderson, doing business under the firm name of Jones & Anderson, having executed to the People’s Bank (J. A. Payne) their notes for $4,000, dated April 6, 1889; one for $1,326.47, due May 6, 1889; one for $1,336.77, due June 6, 1889; and one for $1,336.77, due July 6, 1889; and to secure the same have executed a real estate mortgage on a certain farm in Buffalo county owned by E. R. Jones and on lots 1 and 2, block 3, in Mason City, Custer county, Nebraska, and have also executed a chattel mortgage on their entire stock of goods in Mason City, Nebraska, consisting of all kinds of goods in their stock, the possession of the same is this day turned over to the said J. A. Payne; and whereas the said J. A. Payne has already advanced the sum of $1,326.47 on said mortgage and are to advance the balance of said $4,000 at such times and in such amounts as may hereafter be agreed upon as the said Jones & Anderson may need it to liquidate their indebtedness, and the said Payne is to take possession of said stock of goods and sell the same at ordinary retail trade and account for all the money so taken in, until the said $4,000 is fully paid, and to keep the said stock replenished with what staples are necessary to keep up said stock, the said Jones & Anderson to donate their time in assist[263]*263ing to dispose of said stock; but it is understood and agreed that they are to have no control of the possession, but the entire business is to be turned over to the said J. A. Payne, and all invoices to be received by and he places H. J. Cook in possession, who is to act as the agent of said Payne and be under his control.

“ L. R. Jones and Neils Anderson,

“ J. F. Baldwin,

Cashier People’s Bank.

“Mason City, Neb., April 10, 1889.”

The plaintiffs in error seem to have taken possession under said agreement at the time of the date thereof and continued in possession until about July 13 of that year, when they seem to have discharged Cook and excluded the defendants in error, from the business, and thereafter sold the goods under a mortgage. The reason given by the plaintiff in error Payne, as set forth in his answer, is as follows: “That on or about April 6, 1889, the plaintiffs were largely indebted for merchandise previously purchased, to-wit, in the sum of about $4,000, which amount was due and payable and were without money or other means to meet said indebtedness, and being pressed for payment thereof came to this defendant and desired him to assume said indebtedness and to pay the same, and thereupon this defendant took from said plaintiffs, and to pay the same, the said notes and mortgage in plaintiff’s petition mentioned and at the same time advanced to said plaintiffs the said sum of $1,326.47, which was applied on said indebtedness and assumed the remainder of said indebtedness then owing by the plaintiffs to the amount of $3,060, which defendant has since paid ; that at the same time the plaintiffs and this defendant entered into a verbal agreement to the effect that this defendant was to immediately take possession of said stock of goods embraced in said mortgage, and to sell the stock therein mentioned in the ordinary course of retail trade for cash, the proceeds to be [264]

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Related

Hanscom v. Lantry
67 N.W. 762 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1896)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
50 N.W. 8, 33 Neb. 260, 1891 Neb. LEXIS 168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/payne-v-jones-neb-1891.