Wilson v. Stowers

170 S.E. 745, 161 Va. 418, 1933 Va. LEXIS 332
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedSeptember 21, 1933
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 170 S.E. 745 (Wilson v. Stowers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilson v. Stowers, 170 S.E. 745, 161 Va. 418, 1933 Va. LEXIS 332 (Va. 1933).

Opinion

Epes, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action, instituted by notice of motion for judgment, brought by Miss M. V. Wilson against N. W. Stowers and his wife, Nannie G. Stowers. The notice alleges that the defendants are indebted to the plaintiff for the full amount evidenced by a note for $1,800 dated January 27, 1927, drawn and executed by N. W. Stowers and Nannie G. Stowers, payable to the order of M. V. Wilson twelve months after date, with interest from date.

The defendants filed a plea of nil debet and a special plea of payment, alleging that “on the__________day of ------------, 19—, the said defendants paid to the said plaintiff the said sum of $1,800 together with interest thereon.”

The case was tried twice before a jury. On the first trial there was a hung jury. On the second trial the jury returned a verdict for the defendants, in accordance with [420]*420which the court entered judgment. To this judgment the plaintiff assigns error.

The first assignment of error relates to the court’s overruling the objections made by the plaintiff to the defendant’s pleas.

When the plaintiff made her objections to the pleas she stated no reason therefor, and the court overruled the objections. However, after the verdict had been returned and judgment entered, her counsel stated to the court that she had objected to the pleas for the following reasons: (1) The pleas were not signed by counsel, and the names of the defendants signed thereto were written with a typewriter. (2) The plea of payment did not state “when the said defendants paid to plaintiff the said sum of $1,800, together with the interest thereon.”

These objections could, and doubtless would, have been remedied if the grounds of objection had been stated when the objections were made. It is not permissible for a plaintiff to object generally to pleas and then after judgment to raise points such as are here made. See in this connection Rule 22 of this court. The court committed no error in overruling the objections to the pleas.

The second assignment of error is that the court erred in permitting the defendants to read to the jury the deposition of Ocie Sparks.

The objection made to the reading of this deposition was that there was no evidence sufficient to establish that Ocie Sparks fell within any of the classes of persons whose depositions may be read by one party to a civil case at law without the assent of the other party. Section 6231, Code Va. 1919, reads:

“A deposition in a civil case at law, taken on such notice, under sections sixty-two hundred and twenty-five, sixty-two hundred and twenty-six and sixty-two hundred and twenty-eight, may be read in such case if, when it is offered, the witness be dead, or out of this State, or one of its judges, or a superintendent of a hospital for the insane distant more than thirty miles from the place of trial, or [421]*421in any public office or service, the duties of which prevent his attending the court, or be unable to attend it from sickness or other infirmity, or be more than a hundred miles from the place of trial. But where the only ground of reading a deposition is, that the witness is more than a hundred miles from the place of trial, on motion to the court, before the commencement of the trial, it may, for good cause shown, require such witness to attend in person.”

It is not contended that Ocie Sparks was at the time of the trial as far as one hundred miles from the town of Tazewell where this case was tried. The defendants’ contention that her deposition was admissible is based solely upon the following testimony contained in her deposition:

• “Q. Can you get to Tazewell court tomorrow?

“A. No, sir, I can’t.

“Q. Why?

“A. Because I have a sick sister that has to take treatment, and no one here can give the treatments but me.

“Q. If it were not for that condition you would be perfectly willing to come to Tazewell as a witness in this case?

“A. Yes, sir.

“Q. Have you been requested by Mr. Stowers to attend court at Tazewell as a witness?

“Q. And have you told him that you would do so, except for your sister being in the condition that she is in?

“A. Yes, sir.”

This testimony is not sufficient to render her deposition admissible under the provisions of section 6231. We are not able to say that the plaintiff was not prejudiced by the reading of this deposition, and are of opinion that the court committed reversible error in permitting it to be read.

Having reached this conclusion, the question arises, What judgment should be entered here? Section 6365, Code Va. 1919.

[422]*422The defendants pleaded nil debet and the plea of payment heretofore quoted, but the défense which they asked the court to submit to the jury in the instructions asked for by them was that the note sued upon was executed and delivered to Miss M. V. Wilson without any consideration to them therefor, and is, therefore, unenforceable in her hands.

In reply to a question asked by the writer, counsel for defendants stated at the bar of this court that there was no contention that this note had been paid since it was executed and delivered to Miss Wilson. In view of this admission we déem it unnecessary to discuss the issue raised by the plea of payment, further than to say that the evidence is insufficient to support a verdict based upon a finding that, since it was executed and delivered, the note has been paid to Miss Wilson, or any one for her, by the defendants, or anyone else, we shall, therefore, confine our consideration of the evidence to the question, Was the note given for a consideration which will support a recovery thereon by Miss Wilson?

It appears from the evidence that the background against which this litigation is projected is this:

Mary V. Wilson has a daughter, Lula Mae Wilson, who was born-in February, 1903. While still a minor, in December, 1918, she married E. C. Dutton. When Lula Mae was nine years old, Samuel Henigar died, leaving a will by which he devised to her about 2,375 acres of land in Tazewell and the adjacent counties.

Three hundred and twenty-three (323) acres of the land in Tazewell county, known as the Henigar place, lie in the bowl-like valley in the Alleghany mountains known as Burk’s Garden, which is famous for its beauty and the great fertility of its soil. Another large area of this land lies on the mountain by which Burk’s Garden is almost completely enclosed. The 323-acre place is divided into two tracts by a road. One of these contains 173 acres and the other, on which there is a brick dwelling and other improvements, contains 150 acres.

[423]*423By permission of her guardian given in pursuance of an order of the court, Lula Mae and her mother occupied the dwelling on the 150-acre tract as their home until Lula Mae’s marriage. What use was made of the land during this period does not appear from the record. After her marriage the court appointed her husband receiver of her property in accordance with the provisions of what is now section 5136, Code Va. 1919. From that time until 1924, when she became twenty-one years of age, Mrs.

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170 S.E. 745, 161 Va. 418, 1933 Va. LEXIS 332, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-stowers-va-1933.