White v. Cox

4 Tenn. 80
Tennessee Supreme Court·Decided November 15, 1816·Published

Opinion

Per Curiam.

This is a bill in equity. The facts charged and admitted are, that a dissolution of their partnership was agreed on, on the 26th of November, 1808. White was to receive all debts due to the firm, and to pay all debts due from it; to have all the goods, stock, and real estate belonging to the firm, and to give two bonds to Cox, payable in twelve and eighteen months, for $1,776 each ; that they made a schedule, a copy of which is annexed and is objected to only as to some omissions. The facts charged and not admitted, but proved, seem to be these. That the debts transferred were $7,104; the plaintiff says $7,535.75. That White was intoxicated * at the time is partly admitted by the defendant, who says he was not more so 'than usual, and intimates that he was always so. And by Cox’s confessions made to a witness, it appears that the plaintiff was drawn in by him to drink, and that he was stimulated by Cox’s offers to make offers himself. That Cox had gotten an advantageous bargain, the plaintiff having not taken that care of himself against ebriety which, by a letter written to Cox before that period, he had urged Cox to take of himself. That he, Cox, had not acted amiss, for that White’s property would be taken by others, he being in declining circumstances. It is charged that $2,280.37^- was due. from insolvent persons. These debts and all others transferred, the plaintiff charges that Cox represented to be on solvent persons. Cox says the greater part of these $2,280 might have been collected by-proper diligence; but says he did not state that those who owed that sum were solvent. It is believed that he represented all the debtors to be solvent who owed the debts transferred by him. For he states that he deducted for insolvents $3,552 from $11,250 remaining after debts due from the firm were deducted. The residue then which he transferred must have been considered by White as purged of insolvencies, and must have been transferred as such by Cox. He does not meet this allegation by a direct denial. He only says that he made no such representation as to the $2,280 mentioned in the bill. This may be true as to the par[66] ticular debts included in this sum; and it may also be true that he may have stated that those who owed the $7,104 were solvent. The answer in this instance is evasive and not direct as to a very material fact, which circumstance, taken in conjunction with the deduction for insolvents before adverted to, may be considered to afford a fair inference, that he made the representation charged to him as to the whole sum * transferred. As to the solvency or insolvency of the debtors who owed the several sums which formed the said $2,280, the proof is that they were insolvent; that is to say, some of them, who altogether owed to the amount of $193.14, had paid Cox himself before the transfer ; others, who altogether owed to the amount of $1,456.50§, were insolvent at the time of the transfer. Others, who owed to the amount of $67,' had been arrested and discharged by Cox from execution. Others owed altogether the amount of $1,000 who, though solvent, have not paid, and cannot be compelled to pay. The whole of these several sums amount to $2,916.69§, and are more than equal to the $2,280. The whole amount of sums transferred are rather to be taken as amounting to $7,104 than to $7,635.75, because the half of the former is the precise sum for which the two notes were given to the defendant. And it is not unfair to infer the defendant’s knowledge of these insolvencies at the time of the transfer. He transacted all the business, and must, in all probability, have informed himself of the situation of the debtors. He is charged to have received $172,101 of the debts transferred before the time of the transfer. His answer supposes that was meant of a debt due from Beard. It is not certain that this supposition is correct. It is possible, however, that this sum is part of $193.14 before mentioned, and is, therefore, established by proof. He is charged with a bank bill of $50 paid by the firm .to Colonel Meigs, which turned out to be a counterfeit, which was not mentioned by the defendant at the time of the transfer as a >debt due from the firm, but which the plaintiff had to pay for the firm. This the defendant must have known of at the time of the transfer. It is charged against the defendant * that he purchased the Poplar Creek lands with money belonging to the firm, and gave no account of it when the settlement was made. He says he purchased them with his own money. The proof is that these lands were sold for a debt due to the firm, bid [67] off by him, and paid for by his receipt to the officer for the money due to the firm; this view of the case leads to the conclusion that out of $7,104 transferred to White he lost $2,916.69f, and $50; and, moreover, that he has lost his half of the value of the Poplar Creek lands. As to other mistakes stated at the bar, such as the two lots, negro woman, land warrants, and drove of cattle, these are not now taken into view, having not been stated in the bill; though, by and by, when the account shall be taken, they may properly be considered of.

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White v. Cox, 4 Tenn. 80 (Tenn. 1816).

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