Steel v. Yeatman

5 Del. 267

• Court: Superior Court of Delaware
• Decided: July 5, 1850
• Status: Published

Opinion

By the Court.

The act of assembly makes a book of accounts evidence, with the oath of the party, as to matters properly chargeable in account. If the charge be of goods, the book is evidence of a sale and delivery to the party charged; open,, of course, to contradiction as to either sale or delivery. If the delivery be shown, either by the book entry, or by evidence extraneous, to have been to a third party, the authority of the party charged for such delivery must be proved otherwise than by the book entry. In case of work and labor, r charge of so much work done is look evidence of the work, and that it was done for the party charged, subject as in the other case, to be controverted; and if it appears either by the book entry, or other proof, that the work ivas done for the benefit of a third person, the authority for charging A., for work done for B., must be proved by other evidence than the book entry. -If, therefore, this work was done for the school committee, and on the district school house, the charge on defendant's books against plaintiff must be sustained by evidence of employment by .Yeatman, forming a contract which made him personally liable; or the defendant does not establish that charge as a set-off against Yeatman’s demand.

Verdict for plaintiff.