Viets v. Marks

10 Conn. Supp. 367, 1942 Conn. Super. LEXIS 34
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas
DecidedFebruary 23, 1942
DocketFile No. 40131
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 10 Conn. Supp. 367 (Viets v. Marks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Viets v. Marks, 10 Conn. Supp. 367, 1942 Conn. Super. LEXIS 34 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1942).

Opinion

MOLLOY, J.

This is a suit to recover on an open account. As of November 1, 1928, the indebtedness of the defendant was $350. From the books of account, Exhibits A, B, and C, there can be little doubt but that there is now owed by the defendant $957.27, with interest from November 22, 1934. There is no merit to the defendant’s first defense of payment in full of the account. The struggle in the case concerns the second defense, which claims that the debt is barred by the statute of limitations, it being the defendant’s contention that he had no dealings whatever with the plaintiff since April 2, 1932. Although not raised in the pleadings, there is a further question now posed that there was no connection between the plaintiff and the defendant concerning any of the matters set, forth in the bill of particulars, which is a statement of the account, but rather that if the indebtedness is legally due, it is to C. P. Viets 8s? Son, a partnership then existing between 'the plaintiff and his father, but since dissolved, with nothing in the evidence to show that this partnership sold, assigned or transferred any interest in any indebtedness due from the defendant to the partnership, to Leon Viets, the present plaintiff. This claim presents a question of pleading and the interpretation of section 5531 of the General Statutes, Revision of 1930.

The business relations between C. P. Viets & Son and the defendant started in 1913 or 1915 and concerned the buying of, selling to, and exchanging of cows with the defendant.

The question of the application of the statute of limitations arises by reason of transactions which took place between the plaintiff and the defendant October 9, 1930, and March 25, 1932, and the legal conclusions to be drawn therefrom.

On October 9, 1930, the defendant, having advertised an auction of his herd of cattle, was in the process of selling them [369]*369when one of his creditors attached the cows. The plaintiff, his then brother-in-law and a creditor, and one Nathan Becker, another creditor, came to his rescue by paying the attaching creditor $637.89 and securing a release of the attachment. This payment was charged against the defendant’s account. The defendant then executed and delivered to C. P. Viets & Son, of which the plaintiff was a partner, and Becker, a bill of sale of the defendant's cows and a truck as security, and on the same day they sold and transferred the property to the defendant by conditional bill of sale. The defendant took possession of the cows and truck.

In March, 1932, the plaintiff learned that the defendant was neglecting his cattle and upon investigation found them to be in a badly emaciated condition. Whereupon, after dissolving his partnership with Becker in the conditional bill of sale and allowing him $50 for his interest under date of March 25, 1932, as evidenced" by plaintiff’s Exhibit E, he took the cows, 13 in number, and the truck into his possession, allowing a credit to the defendant for the then value of the cows of $160. No value apparently was set on the truck. The plaintiff subsequently expended $24 for repairs on the truck and sold the same to one Clark for $185, payable in installments. The final payment on this deferred payment plan was on November 22, 1934. Suit was brought by service on the defendant November 19, 1940. So that we have the cows and truck taken by the plaintiff on March 25, 1932, and the last installment payment on the truck on November 22, 1934.

It is the contention of the plaintiff on this situation that there being no legal objection to his making a sale of the truck on the deferred payment plan in the absence of a contractual prohibition against it, then there is no legal objection to his crediting the defendant’s account with the payments as they are made, and thus deferring the running of the statute of limitations till the last payment or credit. This is disputed by the defendant and thus we have the question: Was the operation of the statute suspended by the deferred payments?

It appears from the evidence that from the time the plaintiff took the cows and truck, March 25, 1932, he had no dealings or contacts with the defendant. He told him nothing concerning the sale of the cows or truck, nor anything about the credits he was giving his account by any payments on the truck by its purchaser, Clark; The defendant testified, and it is apparently true, that he never authorised the plaintiff to [370]*370sell the truck and defer the payments thereon, nor did he, directly or indirectly, authorize anyone to make payments on his account, and at no time did he have any knowledge that C. P. Viets & Son, or the plaintiff, was crediting his account with the deferred payments; and finally, that he never made any promise, directly or indirectly, to pay the balance due on his account.

The governing principle concerning the acknowledgment of an indebtedness sufficient to remove the bar of the statute of limitations (Gen. Stat. [1930] §6005) is stated in Dwyer vs. Harris, 128 Conn. 397, 400, quoting from Potter vs. Prudential Ins. Co., 108 Conn. 271, 280, as follows: “The determination of whether a sufficient acknowledgment has been made depends upon proof that the defendant by an express or implied recognition of the debt voluntarily renounced the protection of the statute.”

To suspend or remove the operation of the statute, it is the generally accepted rule of law that there must be an express or implied acknowledgment to pay the obligation. 34 Am. Jur. Limitation of Actions §300. In other words, in order to hold the defendant by reason of the deferred payments on the truck sold by the plaintiff, there must be deduced an admission or acknowledgment by the defendant of a subsisting debt from which a promise to pay may be implied. The plaintiff did not claim or rely upon any new promise or new acknowledgment directly by the defendant. His sole claim was that the deferred payments tolled the statute, even though the payments were made without the knowledge of the defendant and made by a stranger to him and not authorized by the defendant.

“Inasmuch as a part payment, in order to remove the bar of the statute of limitations, must have the effect of an acknowledgment of the debt or a new promise, it is established that such a payment, whether made before or after a debt is barred by the statute of limitations, does not toll the statute or revive the debt unless made by the debtor himself or someone having authority to make a new promise for the residue. .. .It follows that a part payment is insufficient if made by a stranger, or by one who was not authorized to represent the debtor, and it has been held that a creditor cannot be made the agent of the debtor to such an extent as to make an act done by him operate as a new promise to himself.” 34 Am. Jur. Limitation of Actions §353.

[371]*371A payment to toll the statute of limitations must be made or authorized by the debtor. White vs. Pittsburgh Vein Coal Co., 266 Pa. 145, 149, 109 Atl. 873, 875.

“Part'payment, in order to take a debt out of the operation of the statute of limitations, must be made by the debtor him' self, or some one legally authorized to act for him. Payment by a stranger will have no such effect.

“The same is true of an item of credit in an open and mutual account current.

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Bluebook (online)
10 Conn. Supp. 367, 1942 Conn. Super. LEXIS 34, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/viets-v-marks-pactcompl-1942.