Smith v. Cottage Home Remedy Co.

1923 OK 377, 216 P. 163, 91 Okla. 87, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 675
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 12, 1923
Docket11536
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1923 OK 377 (Smith v. Cottage Home Remedy Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Cottage Home Remedy Co., 1923 OK 377, 216 P. 163, 91 Okla. 87, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 675 (Okla. 1923).

Opinion

Opinion by

THOMPSON, C.

This action was commenced on the 24th day of January, 1914, by the Cottage Home Remedy Company, a corporation, defendant in error, as plaintiff below, filing' its petition against Mrs. H. H. Smith and Mrs. Mabel Browall, plaintiffs in error, as defendants below, in the district court of Pontotoc county, OMa. The parties will be referred to in this opinion as plaintiff and defendant; just as they appeared in the lower court. The petition alleges that the defendants, Mrs. H. H. Smith and Mrs. Browall, had, on the 17th day of June, 1911, for the purpose of securing credit for one Charles W. Smith, executed and delivered unto the plaintiff their certain letter of credit as follows:

“Letter of Credit, Town Collierville
“State Tennessee
“Bate June 17, 1911.
“The Cottage Home Remedy Company (incorporated)
“Manufacturer ■
“Proprietary Medicines
“Gentlemen: I — we—hereby become responsible to you for the payment for medicines, equipment, (horses and buggies, etc.,) and for cash furnished or other goods shipped by you to Chas. W. Smith, according to his orders from time to time, provided the said Chas. W. Smith shall fail to make payment therefor at Nashville,, Tennessee, within six months from date; and provided further, that said indebtedness for which we hereby become responsible at any time shall not exceed $500. We hereby waive both notice of the acceptance of this letter of credit and notice of default in payment as above provided.
“Given this the 17th day of June, 1911, at Collierville, county of Shelby, state of Tenn.
“First Endorser’s Signature Mrs. H. H. Smlith Post Office Ada State Oklahoma.
“Second Endorser’s Signature Mrs. Mabel Browall Post Office Ada State Oklahoma.”

That on the same day and date plaintiff •entered into a written contract for the. sale of its goods, and the conduct of its business, and alleging as follows:

“(tol That upon receipt of said Letter of Credit, the plaintiff then and there accepted the same, and did proceed to and did ship out goods, (medicines, equipment, horses, buggies, etc.) to the said Chas. W. Smith upon his orders from time to time, some of which orders were oral and some were in writing, copies of which written orders being hereto attached and made a part of this petition and marked ‘Exhibit 1 to_’ and did furnish the said Chas. W. Smith with money, equipment, such as horses, buggies, etc., upon the strength and recitals of the said Letter of Credit herein sued on, an itemized verified statement of said goods, medicines, equipment, etc. being hereto attached, and made a part hereof marked ‘exhibit B.’ invoices of which are hereto attached and made a part hereof, marked ‘B1 —Be, etc’, that said medicines, equipment, etc., where shipped out to and furnished said Chas. W. Smith by said plaintiff by virtue of the belief of said plaintiff that said defendants would make good their obligations assumed in Said Letter of Credit ©m default of said Chas. W. Smith in paying for said goods within six months from the date of shipment.
“That on the 31st day of December, 1911, the said Chas. W. Smith was indebted to said plaintiff in the sum of $496.02 for goods, medicines, money furnished, etc., on the said contract, and said Letter of Credit, and on which, said Chas. W. Smith paid within six months thereafter, only the sum of $80.08, and wholly made default in the payment of the balance thereon, leaving the sum of $496.02 due and payable to' this plaintiff, five hundred dollars of which these defendants have obligated themselves to pay, and due and timely demand on them have been made by plaintiff for the payment of the same but they refuse to pay the same.
“Wherefore, the plaintiff prays for judgment against the said defendants in the sum of $496.02 and for all cost of this action.”

And attached thereto an itemized account, duly verified, which was made a part of the *89 petition, showing a full itemized statement of the goods and property that had been delivered to Charles W. Smith.

Thereafter, the defendants filed their unverified answer, the first paragraph of answer being as follows:

“That they deny all and singular the allegations contained in plaintiff’s amended petition, except such as may be hereafter admitted or explained.”

And they further set up three special defenses, to which three special defenses plaintiff demurred.

A trial was had and defendants prevailed, and appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of this state by the plaintiff, and the cause was reversed. See Cottage Home Remedy Co. v. Smith et al., 63 Okla. 16, 162 Pac. 185. And the special defenses were eliminated by the Supreme Court opinion, leaving only the unverified general denial in defendants’ answer. The cause wias remanded for new trial, and came on for second trial, and plaintiff filed motion for judgment on the pleadings, which is as follows:

“Comes now the above named plaintiff, and through its attorney, O. IP. Green, states to the court that this cause was appealed to the Supreme Court and was by said court reversed and remanded, and that the mandate has been spread 'of record in this court; that under the decision of the Supreme Court and the directions to this court, upon said reversal, the answer of the defendants is only a general denial, which is not a defense to the letter of credit sued upon, hence, plaintiff is entitled to judgment on the pleadings.
“Wherefore, plaintiff moves the court for a judgment upon the pleadings as they now stand in this court.”

And, on January 14, 1920, the motion of plaintiff for judgment on the pleadings was sustained, and judgment rendered* against the defendants for the sum of 8496.02, with interest at six per cent, from the 22nd day of November, 1911, until paid, and costs. Defendants filed motion for new trial, which was overruled. Exceptions were taken, and the cause comes to this court regularly on appeal from said judgment.

Defendants set up four specifications of error as follows:

“(1) The court erred in overruling the motion to vacate and set aside the judgment for the reasons therein set out.
“ (2) The court erred in sustaining the motion of the defendants in error for the reason that the pleadings in said cause were not sufficient and did not authorize a judgment on the pleadings.
“(3) That the verified account was not sufficient to entitle the plaintiff to a judgment against these defendants, for the reason that the account sued upon was against one Chas. W. Smith as principal, and that these defendants were only sureties and not primarily liable, and the plaintiff should have been required to prove its account against the defendants by legal evidence.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1923 OK 377, 216 P. 163, 91 Okla. 87, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 675, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-cottage-home-remedy-co-okla-1923.