Spira v. Eisen

15 Ohio App. 511, 1922 Ohio App. LEXIS 234
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 13, 1922
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 15 Ohio App. 511 (Spira v. Eisen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Spira v. Eisen, 15 Ohio App. 511, 1922 Ohio App. LEXIS 234 (Ohio Ct. App. 1922).

Opinion

Sullivan, J.

This cause comes into this court on error from the municipal court of the city of Cleveland.

The defendant in error, Wolf Eisen, filed a statement of claim in that court praying for a judgment against the plaintiff in error for $71, with interest from the 14th day of February, 1916.

The statement of claim alleges that the defendant below was engaged in the foreign exchange business, [512]*512in the transmission through foreign mails of money given defendant for that purpose; alleges as a' cause of action against defendant that he on the 14th day of February, 1916, delivered to defendant the sum of $71 for the purpose of .transmitting through European mails to one Mirsl Eisen foreign money amounting to 475 kronen, in consideration of certain compensation; that said Mirsl Eisen never received such money so transmitted; and that a copy of the receipt received by plaintiff below, upon the payment of said money, is hereto attached, marked Exhibit “A,” and made a part of the statement of claim.

Exhibit “A,” as attached to the bill of exceptions, on what appears to be a regular form in common use at the bank of defendant below, is a receipt, as follows:

“Henry Spira, 599 Broadway.

“Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A., Feb. 14,1916. “No. 18003.

“Received from........"Wolf Eisen 71........ ........Dollars for transmission through European mails to Mirsl Eisen.

“Amount Received ■ Amount Sent

$71 Henry Spira 475

Dollars Kronen.

“Bank of Henry Spira

“Paid, Feb. 14, 1916.

“Cleveland, Ohio.”

The defendant below filed no answer, as under the rules of the municipal court the same is not required where the recovery sought is less than $100.

[513]*513After hearing had, the municipal court rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff for $64.12, and also his costs of suit. On March 10, 1921, a motion for new trial was filed by the defendant below, and the motion being overruled the defendant then and there excepted, whereupon the case came into this court for alleged errors in the proceedings below.

It plainly appears from the allegations of the statement of claim that the plaintiff is not entitled to recover in any amount under that pleading, for the reason that the cause of action is based upon a contract to do certain specific things, as is evidenced by the receipt known as Plaintiff’s Exhibit “A.”

The conclusions of the court arise from the aforesaid pleading itself. The gist of the statement of claim is that the defendant below received the aforesaid $71 for the purpose of transmission through the European mails in foreign money to the amount of 475 Austrian kronen, and further that the sum of $71 so delivered was evidenced by the receipt known as Plaintiff’s Exhibit “A,” as aforesaid stated, translated into 475 Austrian kronen.

It is apparent that there is no allegation whatsoever of any breach of the aforesaid conditions incorporated in the aforesaid contract with respect to the terms of the same as specifically set forth in the statement of claim. It cannot be claimed that the allegation in the statement of claim that Mirsl Eisen never received the money placed with the defendant below is a breach of the aforesaid terms of said contract, because there is no claim under that pleading that defendant below in any manner promised or guaranteed delivery of the money or its equivalent in foreign exchange to said Mirsl Eisen. Therefore the conclusion is irresistible that under the state[514]*514ment of claim no recovery whatsoever could be had for the plaintiff below.

The case, however, went forward to trial, and it appears conclusively from the record in the case, as to the specific allegations regarding the terms of the contract set forth in the statement of claim, that the entire evidence in and of itself coincided with the allegations of the statement of claim with respect to the contract and the breach thereof.

In other words, it appears from all the evidence in the case, as in the statement of claim itself, that there was an utter failure to show any breach of performance of any of the terms of the contract as set forth in the pleading of the plaintiff below.

The aforesaid legal deficiency in the pleading with respect to the aforesaid breach might not be regarded as of decisive materiality by a reviewing court if the evidence itself had evinced a failure on the part of the defendant below for the full performance of the terms of the contract, as set forth in the statement of claim. In such an event this court might be warranted, in the absence of an objection below to any evidence under the petition, in ignoring the aforesaid vital deficiency in the averments of the pleading of the plaintiff below.

However, the case went to trial without any objection on the part of the plaintiff in error by way of demurrer to the evidence, so that the case will be considered by this court upon the record.

Under the contract, as alleged in the petition, and verified by the evidence, there was no obligation on the part of the plaintiff in error to deliver the 475 kronen. Its duty under the contract was to receive the original money, translate it at the request of defendant in error into 475 kronen, and transmit the [515]*515same, in accordance with the contract, through the European mails.

The Lucas county court of appeals, in Nat. Bank of Commerce v. Evanoff, ante, 51, construing the legal effect of a receipt similar in import to Exhibit “A,” in a similar case to the one at bar, held, in an opinion pronounced by Judge Richards, as follows:

“Counsel for Evanoff contended that the obligation of the bank was an absolute one to deliver $200, and that having failed to comply with the terms of the contract, he is entitled to a return of the amount with interest, and this was 'the view adopted by the court of common pleas. Notwithstanding this contention of counsel, the petition filed avers that the bank agreed to transmit the sum of $200, or its equivalent in Bulgarian money, to Tsana Stancheff, wife of the plaintiff; * * *. We think there can be no doubt that Evanoff did not wish $200 in American money transmitted to his wife, but that he wished its equivalent in Bulgarian money forwarded to her. The bank became his agent for that purpose, and its obligation would be only that of exercising ordinary care in transmitting to Evanoff’s wife the value in Bulgarian money of $200, and in determining what constituted ordinary care it would of course be necessary to take into consideration the state of war then and for a long time thereafter existing and the extent of the interruption of communication between the United States and Europe.”

The New Jersey supreme court, in Katcher v. American Express Co., 100 Atl., Rep., 741 (92 N. J. L., 309), rendered an opinion of similar import to the one pronounced by Judge Richards in the Lucas county case, supra, as follows:

[516]*516■ “Defendant agreed, in consideration of money paid by plaintiff, to cable a credit of 1,000 rubles to Russia and remit, or forward, that sum to a designated person at a specified place ‘subject to the rules and regulations of the various post offices used in making the remittance.’ Held,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
15 Ohio App. 511, 1922 Ohio App. LEXIS 234, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spira-v-eisen-ohioctapp-1922.