Smith v. Bellefonte Trust Co.

13 Pa. D. & C. 723, 1930 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 265
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Centre County
DecidedJanuary 18, 1930
StatusPublished

This text of 13 Pa. D. & C. 723 (Smith v. Bellefonte Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Centre County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Bellefonte Trust Co., 13 Pa. D. & C. 723, 1930 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 265 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1930).

Opinion

Fleming, P. J.,

— The matter before us is a rule upon the defendant to show cause why the statement of claim filed herein should not be withdrawn and an amended statement filed in lieu thereof. The defendant resists the rule and assigns as reasons therefor the following:

1. Because said amended statement sets forth a new cause of action.

2. Because more than six years have elapsed since a portion of the alleged original cause of action arose, and the amended statement cannot be allowed as to any alleged items in the original statement accruing prior to six years of the date of said amendment.

The original statement avers that the plaintiff, at the special instance and request of Ellis E. Irwin, defendant’s decedent, permitted the said defendant’s decedent to come to her home and to reside and make his home there from Sept. 21, 1921, to Oct. 31, 1926, “with the exception of brief periods of time during which the said Ellis E. Irwin visited at other places.” Plaintiff avers that she boarded and lodged defendant’s decedent, doing his washing and ironing and performing many services for him, adding, “the specific items being set forth in the schedule herein referred to.” This schedule shows unvarying monthly charges of $30 per month for board and $2 per month for laundry. The dates show such charges covering an unbroken period beginning Sept. 21, 1921, and ending March 31, 1923. No further charges are recorded until Jan. 1, 1925, when another unbroken period begins extending from such date, to wit, Jan. 1, 1925, to Nov. 10, 1926. Nowhere in plaintiff’s original statement is there an averment that defendant’s decedent agreed to pay any sum for the ¿services alleged to have been performed for him. The statement also contains an averment that “she permitted the said Ellis E. Irwin to erect a road-stand, for which the said plaintiff charged the said Ellis E. Irwin Three Dollars ($3.00) per month rent.” There is no averment that defendant’s decedent leased the ground upon which such road-stand was built nor that defendant’s decedent agreed to pay the rental named therefor.

The amended statement sought to be filed in lieu of the original is more prolific in its explanation of the domestic status and personal condition of defendant’s decedent at or about and during the period alleged. It contains an averment that defendant’s decedent promised by means of letters, which plaintiff admits are no longer in existence, and by oral promises “to pay the [724]*724plaintiff an ample amount for room, boarding, washing and her personal services in attending to the sewing and mending of his clothing and caring for himself as more or less an invalid and helpless.” She further avers that “no fixed amount was named for these services because of the confidence the plaintiff had in her deceased uncle, the said Ellis E. Irwin.” She avers that the “promises of ample compensation in money were repeated in the hearing of others,” and that “it was understood between the plaintiff and the deceased defendant that she, the plaintiff, for the services aforesaid should be amply paid after the death of her said uncle, Ellis E. Irwin.” The amended statement avers the charge for rent of ground used in the road-stand as a “reasonable monthly rental” and fixes the sum thereof at $3, which was the sum named in the original statement.

The total sum claimed in the amended statement is $2551, whereas that of the original statement was $1386. The amended statement claims for an unbroken period from Sept. 21, 1921, to Nov. 11, 1926, while the original claims for broken periods between such dates.

In Hanley et ux. v. Ryan et ux., 87 Pa. Superior Ct. 6, Judge Keller cites a number of cases demonstrating what constitutes the setting up of a new cause of action, as follows: “Where, in trespass vi et armis against a constable for an excessive distress, it omitted the admissions as to plaintiff’s tenancy: Royse v. May, 93 Pa. 454; where the relationship and standard of care was changed from that due to a person not intending to become a passenger on a street railway to that of an intending passenger: Martin v. Pittsburgh Rys. Co., 227 Pa. 18; where the statement alleged the injuries were due to negligence of defendant in using a coupler more dangerous than those in general use and the amendment charged the use of a coupler in violation of Act of Congress: Allen v. T. V. R. R. Co., 229 Pa. 97; where an averment of malicious seizure of goods by unlawful process was changed so as to aver an abuse of civil process by excessive seizure of goods: Lane v. Sayre Water Co., 220 Pa. 599; where averment that the accident was caused by the act of a fellow servant was changed so as to charge that the defendant had not provided proper signals nor employed a sufficient number of men on the train: Peterson v. Pennsylvania R. R. Co., 195 Pa. 494; where the original ground of negligence was that defendant had furnished a chain of insufficient strength and the amendment charged negligence of defendant’s vice principal in-fastening the chain to a beam: Mays v. United Natural Gas Co., 268 Pa. 325; where the statement complained of a defect in a particular machine and the amendment charged the defect to another and different machine and failure to instruct as to danger: Mahoney v. Park Steel Co., 217 Pa. 20; where the amendment set up a new promise to pay by an insurance company, following the original rejection of the claim: Grier v. Assurance Co., 183 Pa. 334; as well as the numerous cases which involved a change of parties or their relationship : Bender v. Penfield, 235 Pa. 58; Girardi v. Laquin Lumber Co., 232 Pa. 1; Stine v. Herr, 78 Pa. Superior Ct. 226, 230; La Bar v. N. Y. S. & W. R. R. Co., 218 Pa. 261, 264.”

In the instant case the original statement covered a period of time beginning Sept. 21, 1921, and continuing to March 31, 1923. After omitting the period from March 31, 1923, until Jan. 1, 1925, the period of time is again made to run and to continue from Jan. 1, 1925, to Nov. 10, 1926. In the amended claim the period of time is continuous and unbroken from Sept. 21, 1921, to Nov. 11, 1926. The amount averred to be due by the defendant to the plaintiff in the original statement of claim was $1366, and in the amended [725]*725statement is averred to be $2551. In the original statement no specific oral contract between plaintiff and defendant’s decedent is averred and the statement is, if anything, as noted by the learned counsel for the defendant in his brief, in the nature of a quantum meruit. In the amended statement a specific oral contract with defendant’s decedent is averred. The original statement avers the services rendered to be board, laundry and rental of a roadside stand. The amended statement includes these and adds sewing and mending and the caring for defendant’s decedent, through the period alleged, as more or less of an invalid.

Justice Kephart, in Goldberg v. Friedrich, 279 Pa. 572, 576, prescribes as one of the tests by which it is to be determined whether a cause of action is substantially changed, the question whether the same defense is open in each, and whether the same measure of proof is required. Certainly these tests cannot be affirmatively answered in the instant case. The same defense cannot be applied to an action upon a specific oral contract that can be applied to an action in the nature of a quantum meruit, and this is especially so in an action against a decedent’s personal representative for board, washing and care practically in the form of nursing.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hanley Et Ux. v. Ryan Et Ux.
87 Pa. Super. 6 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1925)
Royse v. May
93 Pa. 454 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1880)
Grier v. Northern Assurance Co.
39 A. 10 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1898)
Peterson v. Pennsylvania Railroad
46 A. 112 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1900)
Philadelphia v. Hestonville & Fairmount Railroad
52 A. 184 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1902)
Mahoney v. Park Steel Co.
66 A. 90 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1907)
LaBar v. New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad
67 A. 413 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1907)
Lane v. Sayre Water Co.
69 A. 1126 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1908)
Martin v. Pittsburg Railways Co.
75 A. 837 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1909)
Allen v. Tuscarora Valley Railroad
78 A. 34 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1910)
Girardi v. Laquin Lumber Co.
81 A. 63 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1911)
Bender v. Penfield
83 A. 585 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1912)
Card v. Stowers Pork Packing & Provision Co.
98 A. 728 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1916)
Mays v. United Natural Gas Co.
112 A. 22 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1920)
Andrews v. Marsden
122 A. 171 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1923)
Goldberg v. Friedrich
124 A. 186 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1924)
Stine v. Herr
78 Pa. Super. 226 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1922)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
13 Pa. D. & C. 723, 1930 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-bellefonte-trust-co-pactcomplcentre-1930.