Wasson v. . Linster

83 N.C. 575
CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedJune 5, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 83 N.C. 575 (Wasson v. . Linster) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wasson v. . Linster, 83 N.C. 575 (N.C. 1880).

Opinion

Dillard, J.,

after stating the case. Of the issues presented by plaintiff and rejected by the court, the first one is *579 the same in substance, and nearly so in language, as the ■first of the series presented by the judge, and its rejection of course can be no cause of complaint by the plaintiff.

The second issue of the plaintiff was properly refused, and the third 'one depending thereon ough-t to and did go with it. The bond sued on is a bond conditioned for the faithful and correct performance of duty by the defendant, Linster, as deputy sheriff, and to indemnify and save harmless the plaintiff -against his acts and omissions as such. And beyond doubt, the plaintiff, if he suffered loss by an act or -omission of the defendant in his office, and the defendant on demand failed or refused repayment, could assign the same as a breach ef the conditions of the bond declared on, and recover therefor. But in fixing the amount, the -assessment of damages would have -to be grounded -on the particular act which damnified him and be limited by the loss therefrom-, and could not be helped out by any other -act or omission for which the plaintiff had not incurred and suffered -loss. The plaintiff in his complaint alleges ‘that he was subjected in the suit of L T. Long to the penalty of $500, for a false return made by the defendant as his deputy on the summons and order of arrest issued in the action of Long v. Johnson, and -the counsel of plaintiff in his argument before usurges-(and to the same purport in his brief) that his -second and third issues looked -to the establishment of falsity in either or both of the endorsements made by defendant on said process, and -to the assessment of damages for either or both, and that by the refusal of his issues he was prejudiced.

A sufficient answer to the exception is, that a transcript of the record of the suit of Long against the plaintiff for--the penalty for a false -return is not made part of the case, -so that we can see for ourselves whether the penalty was •claimed for -falsity in the memorandum of the time of day When the paper came into the defendant’-s hands, or in -the *580 return, R. M‘. John-son; not found ins my county y” an(Í therefore we have to- be bound by the jtfdge’s statement,, from which it appears that the ground on which the penalty of $500 was claimed and recovery effected against thuplain-tiff was falsity in the return, “mtfound,1’ and not in the no1* tation on the process of the time the process came to hand1, Taking this to be- so,-if the said- rejected issues had been received, it would ha-ve made it possible for plaintiff to recover damages for a false entry by defendant as to the hour' of the day he received the writs, when plaintiff had never’ been damnified therefor; and we therefore hold the proposed issues of the plaintiff (2- and 3) were too broadband' the rejection of them by the court was net error.

The nex-t exception of plaintiff is to the-admission in evidence of the deposition of R. M-. Johnson, which was objected to for want of sufficient notice of time and place, want of a sufficient commission,, want of a sufficient certificate of qualification of deponent by oath or affirmation, and because' of the opening of the deposition without notice,- and the absence of any order of the clerk endorsed* allowing the same' to be read.-

The judge in his- statement of the case of appeal finds and' sends up the faet that the deposition had accompanied the' papers from Iredell to Wilkes, to which county the case was-removed for trial,- and had been on file for six years to the' knowledge of both sides, and that the cause had been often continued by consent, and no objection made to the deposition or notice of objection- given, until- the same was offered-to be read- in the midst of the trial.-

Under the circumstances of the case, without passing on the grounds of objection, seriatim, we concur wdth the judge' that they were to he deemed waived, and there was-no error i-n allowing the deposition to be read, on the authority of the-eases of Kerchner v. Reilly, 72 N. C., 171, and Katzenstein v. R. & G. R. R. Co., 78 N. C., 286.

*581 In the course of the trial, the plaintiff deeming it material to show that the falsity of return for which he had been ¡subjected consisted in no particular in his own doings or omissions, while the papers were in. his hands, introduced himself as a witness, and testified that the writs came to his hands on the morning of the 1st of -September and not on rihe day before, to-wit, the 31st d,ay of August,as had been testified by Mr. Armfield (Long’s attorney) and that he had mot been with Johnson in the Masonic Lodge on the night -of the 31st of August, nos* seen him any where during the week. Andito combat this proof and show an opportunity to plaintiff to execute the writs after they were delivered to him, as testified to by Mr. Armfield, the defendant offered to show and was allowed -by the court against the objection of the plaintiff to show by R. M. Allison that plaintiff and Johnson were in the lodge at a meeting on the night of the 31st of August, and the ¡reception of this evidence was excepted to as concerning a matter collateral.

The exculpation of plaintiff from fault, in reference to the facts constituting the return a false one, was -material to him and directly involved in his right .to recovery for certainly, if the return “not found'” was false by no act of defendant after the writ came to him, but from a neglect of opportunity in the plaintiff himself to serve them on ¡the occasion of'the masonic meeting on the night .of the 31st of August when the writs were in his hands, there would he no ground of recovery in the action against ¡the deputy. And the evidence of plaintiff, to the effect that he had not been with Johnson .at the lodge, or elsewhere seen him that week, was pertinent to put the untrue faet “ not found™ away from him¡self, and ¡was essential to his success in the cause.

Jn this state of things, it seems ¡to us, the testimony of Allison was admissible as original evidence, as tending to ¡show an opportunity for service of the writs, the main ingredient in the falsity of the return in the plaintiff and *582 besides was' competent as rebutting plaintiff’s evidence on that point, the same being a matter n.ot collateral but directly involved and necessary to-the main issue in the cause*. No fact can be collateral to- the issue-, which is th-e only one,, or one in a chain of facts, without which no recovery cari-be had;: and it being indispensable.-to defendant to-put the-failure of due diligence away from himself, we hold there-was- no error in the admission of the evidence of Allison.

On the conclusion of the trial, the- plaintiff asked the court to charge that if the writ and order of arrest were placed in the- hands of the defendant on the moaning of the 1st of September, between seven and eight o’clock, as testified to by himself, and defendant had made the return thereon, “ cam© to hand September 1st, 1869; at eleven o’clock,” it was- a false return and defendant would be liable.

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Related

Brittain v. Hitchcock.
37 S.E. 474 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1900)
Carroll v. . Hodges
4 S.E. 199 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1887)
Woodley v. . Hassell
94 N.C. 157 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1886)
Barnhardt v. . Smith
86 N.C. 473 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1882)

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Bluebook (online)
83 N.C. 575, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wasson-v-linster-nc-1880.