Robinson v. Mulder

45 N.W. 505, 81 Mich. 75, 1890 Mich. LEXIS 713
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMay 16, 1890
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 45 N.W. 505 (Robinson v. Mulder) 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
Robinson v. Mulder, 45 N.W. 505, 81 Mich. 75, 1890 Mich. LEXIS 713 (Mich. 1890).

Opinion

Morse, J.

This was an action brought in assumpsit in the Newaygo circuit court for a balance due on merchandise alleged to have been sold and delivered by the plaintiffs to the defendant. The claim of plaintiffs shows that the assumed liability of defendant rests upon a similar state of facts as in Cooper v. Mulder, 74 Mich. 374. The plaintiffs had verdict and judgment.

The first error assigned is that the court erred in not sustaining a challenge to the array of jurors. It seems that, at the same term of court, the case of Cooper v. Mulder came on for a new trial under the order of this Court. The defendant in that case is the defendant in the case at bar. He challenged the array, and the challenge was held good. The jurors impaneled in the case were discharged, as were also all the jurors summoned for that term, as the objections to the panel went also to the whole body of jurors drawn and summoned for that term. The court then made an order, to meet the exigencies of the term, and for the purpose of obtaining a jury near [77]*77the county seat,” that 24 qualified jurymen be drawn from 12 townships of the county, naming such townships. These jurors were drawn and summoned forthwith. When the case in hand came on for trial a panel was selected from this list of jurors.

The chief argument here against the validity of this panel is that it was not selected from the body of the county, but limited to 12 townships, when there are 22 townships in the county; and consequently the defendant was not permitted the right that the statute gives him to a jury drawn from all the townships of the county. We are not disposed to inquire into the power of the circuit judge to make this order, as the question was not raised upon the challenge to the array, and it must be considered that the defendant thereby waived the irregularity, if there was any. The defendant’s challenge to the array, which was in writing and verified, set forth the challenge to the array in the case of Cooper v. Mulder, the action of the court thereon, the order made by the circuit judge in relation to the drawing of a new jury, and raised only this objection, to wit, that the court had no power to order an entire new jury, because petit jurors had been drawn and summoned and appeared in the first place, and that, while such drawing was irregular, it was only avoidable on objection of some interested party.

As before said, the objections to the panel in Cooper v. Mulder went to the -whole jury, as all were drawn and summoned in the same manner. If the court was authorized, on account of the irregularities set’ forth in the challenge to the array in the case of Cooper v. Mulder, to discharge that panel, it was eminently proper that he should discharge all the jurors, as the objections went to all of them. Whether he did right or not in thus discharging them cannot be considered on the application or [78]*78complaint of this defendant. He would be estopped from claiming in this case that the court did wrong in granting his motion in the case of Cooper v. Mulder. See People v. While, 68 Mich. 648, 654. Nor can he in this Court raise an objection not made in his challenge to the array in this case.

Various objections are made to the admission of proof in support of plaintiffs’ claim, but there is no merit in any of them. It is also urged that there was not sufficient testimony to go to the jury to establish plaintiffs’ case as to the sale and delivery of the goods. We think, in the absence of any testimony on the part of the defendant to contradict or explain the evidence produced on the part of the plaintiffs, that a satisfactory showing was made from which the jury were legally authorized to find a sale and delivery of the goods to M. B. Franklin. There was no dispute as to what had been paid upon the account. It is stipulated in the record that—

“Plaintiffs introduced testimony tending to show that one M. B. Franklin was engaged in business at Fremont, Mich., from the fall of 1883 until some time in February, 1888, as a retail dealer in dry goods, groceries, clothing, and boots and shoes; that defendant assisted him in starting in business, and from time to time afterwards, and finally, in December, 1885, gave him verbal authority to purchase goods for his store in defendant’s name and on his credit, which authority was never revoked, and under which Franklin acted until some time in February, 1888; that the cases or packages containing such goods were marked and shipped to defendant at Fremont, Mich., and delivered by the railroad company to Mulder’s draymen, who had authority in writing to receive and receipt for all goods received at the railroad station at Fremont marked or consigned to said defendant, and who delivered the goods at Franklin’s store; that defendant had knowledge during this time of the fact that Franklin was buying and receiving said goods in this way, but that the parties selling the goods to Franklin did not deal personally with defendant.
[79]*79“And, the jury haying found in favor of the plaintiffs upon this branch of the case, and passed upon the question of defendant's general liability under the testimony, as an issue in the case, that question is not involved in this bill of exceptions, and a more detailed statement of the testimony relating thereto is for that reason omitted.''

The plaintiffs' bill of particulars included bills of goods sold and delivered to K. Mulder from July 12, 1887, to February 1, 1888, amounting to $565.96. The amount, less payment, was $464.96, with interest. The plaintiffs proved by William Bonghton, .a traveling salesman, that he sold some six or seven hundred dollars worth of boots and shoes to defendant by verbal orders from Franklin. These orders he put in writing, and sent to plaintiffs, who are wholesale dealers in boots and shoes at Detroit. He knew some of them were filled by seeing the goods in Franklin’s store. Being shown the bill of particulars, he stated that he recollected of selling all the identical goods therein mentioned, except one item. It is insisted that the written orders or copies of the verbal orders that he forwarded to plaintiffs would have been the best evidence. However this may be, they were but memoranda made by himself, and, if he could remember the articles he sold by looking at the bill of particulars, the oral testimony was competent. He also swears that in March, 1888, he saw in defendant's store, the one occupied by Franklin, while he was doing business, a good many boots and shoes sold by him, and shipped by plaintiffs. He identified them by the stock number on the boxes, which corresponded with the numbers kept in the stock-books in plaintiffs' store.

The plaintiffs’ shipping clerk testified that he shipped certain cases of goods, boots and shoes, to K. Mulder, Fremont, Mich., delivering them to a railroad carrier, marked as above. He gave the number of cases and date of shipment. He was handed statements, which he testi[80]*80fied he saw copied from plaintiffs’ order-books. These statements contained lists of the goods shipped. The-statements were not admitted in evidence, but used for the purpose of refreshing the recollection of the witness. It was his duty to make the lists for shipment from the-order-book, which lists he handed to the packer. After the goods were packed, he would go over the books, and see that the packer had checked the goods upon the lists as being packed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
45 N.W. 505, 81 Mich. 75, 1890 Mich. LEXIS 713, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robinson-v-mulder-mich-1890.