Young v. Dean

44 So. 2d 12, 253 Ala. 211, 1950 Ala. LEXIS 207
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJanuary 19, 1950
Docket3 Div. 545
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 44 So. 2d 12 (Young v. Dean) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Young v. Dean, 44 So. 2d 12, 253 Ala. 211, 1950 Ala. LEXIS 207 (Ala. 1950).

Opinion

FOSTER, Justice.

This case comes to us on appeal from a decree overruling demurrers to a bill in equity.

The demurrer is in effect addressed to the bill as a whole. So that if any aspect of it is not subject to any assignment of the demurrer, the demurrer was properly overruled. Florence Gin Co. v. City of Florence, 226 Ala. 478, 147 So. 417; Anniston Banking & Loan Co. v. Worsham, 227 Ala. 48, 149 So. 91; 8 Ala.Dig., Equity <^232. But if all aspects are subject to some ground of the demurrer, it should have been sustained. Shamblee v. Wilson, 233 Ala. 164, 170 So. 769(7).

The bill is not framed in terms as of different aspects. But its allegations and prayer serve to call into exercise two forms of equitable relief. One is for a partnership settlement: another is for a discovery in aid of a legal claim and an accounting. The claim for discovery and accounting may be considered together.

We will first inquire into its sufficiency as one to settle a partnership which is alleged to have been dissolved by the death of complainant’s testator. The allegations of the bill material to that aspect are as follows : “At the time of his death (complainant’s testator), he was operating as a partner, along with his sister-in-law, Bertha Young (the respondent) a general mercantile and hardware business in Conecuh -County, Alabama; * * * that he was the owner at the time of his death of a one-half interest in said mercantile and hardware business, * * * and store business was so operated by him for more than fifteen years. That during said period of time, the respondent, Bertha Young, was 'a -partner in said mercantile and hardware business only, and worked in the • same and managed the same jointly with Walter Young (complainant’s testator), •* * * that Walter Young, deceased, and the said Bertha Young were sister-in-law and brother-in-law and were jointly engaged in the furtherance of a joint enterprise, namely, the operation of said mercantile and hardware business.”

The other allegations of the bill do not affect its sufficiency as one to have a partnership settlement. So that we reach the question of whether those allegations are sufficient against demurrer with apposite grounds to support that aspect of the bill.

We are not without ample precedent among our cases defining the essentials of such a bill. They declare the rule to be that it is necessary to allege the terms and conditions of the contract alleged to be a partnership so that it might be seen from the facts whether a partnership was really formed or not; and parT •ticularly the interest of each partner; that each of them had such interest in both the profits and losses; when it was created and how long it continued before it was dissolved; and that there has been no settlement of its affairs. Little v. Snedecor, 52 Ala. 167; Tutwiler v. Dugger, 127 Ala. 191, 28 So. 677; Russell v. Hayden; 201 Ala. 517, 78 So. 871; Williams v. Williams, 206 Ala. 125, 89 So. 272; Hill v. Hill, 205 Ala. 33, 88 So. 224; Copeland v. King, 224 Ala. 160, 139 So. 221.

In the case of Hill v. Hill, supra, the bill contained the proper allegations of fact to comply with the foregoing requirements, and the court so stated, but also observed that since equity had jurisdiction to settle a joint adventure as well as a partnership, a failure to show a technical partnership would not affect the equity of the bill, nor prevent the granting of appropriate relief. That statement is largely relied on by appellee to support the decree overruling the demurrer in the instant case. But it will be noticed that the court there referred to the equity of the hill, and not whether it was subject to demurrer pointing out the failure to allege the facts from which the conclusion was stated in the bill.

We find no authority which supports the idea that a bill is not subject to such a demurrer when it fails to allege the terms and conditions of the contract alleged to constitute a partnership, although the bill may have equity and not be subject to a general ground that it has no equity. It would [214]*214still be subject to grounds of demurrer which point out the failure to allege the facts upon which it is claimed that a partnership was created.

We are clear that the allegations of the bill in this case were not sufficient on demurrer to meet the requirements of law and good pleading. The respondent is entitled to know whether it is claimed that there existed a partnership or joint adventure. The bill uses both terms in describing their relationship, but fails to allege the facts necessary to be known to determine whether a partnership or joint adventure existed.

If the complainant is ignorant of those facts, as well she might be, in order to frame a bill without allegation of them, it is necessary to allege that she is ignorant of those facts and the terms of the agreement by which the partnership was created, and could well seek a discovery from respondent of these details and thereby relieve the bill of the defect.

It is to be noticed in this connection that such a discovery would be in aid of an equitable claim and not in aid of one which is purely legal in its features, as to which a different principle applies. Shelton v. Timmons, 189 Ala. 289, 66 So. 9. We therefore think that aspect of the bill which seeks a partnership settlement is subject to the demurrer which pointed out the defects to which we have referred.

But if the other aspect of the bill is sufficient against the demurrer interposed, it was properly overruled, since the demurrer was addressed to the bill as a whole.

The other aspect of the bill seeks a discovery and accounting. It does not seek a discovery, as we have stated, of the terms and conditions of the agreement forming the partnership. It alleges that at the time of the death of complainant’s testator, he was the owner of certain described personal property, cash money, mortgages and securities, the exact amount being unknown to her, and that for many years he resided in the same residence with respondent who was his sister-in-law; that he operated a large farm and was an extensive grower of cotton and strawberries; that he operated the mercantile and hardware business and farm business over a period of many years, with the store business as a source of supply for the farm, and that after the death of Walter Young' the complainant made demand upon the respondent for the distributive interest of complainant, individually, as the sole heir of the deceased, and the respondent denied that the deceased had any assets at the time of his death; but complainant alleges that respondent has continuously had possession of the assets and property of the deceased, and that she now has in her possession the stock of goods and all assets of said business, and has Government bonds, cash money, proceeds of the bank accounts and other property of the deceased, and has failed and refused upon demand to deliver them, or any part thereof to complainant as the sole surviving heir of deceased, and has appropriated the same to her own purposes: that deceased and respondent lived in a joint homestead and occupied toward each other fiduciary relationship; and complainant is not informed as to the exact amount of the assets and property that Walter Young had at the time of his death, and that the books, accounts, documents and records are now in her possession, and are extensive, and that the transactions are numerous and complicated.

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Bluebook (online)
44 So. 2d 12, 253 Ala. 211, 1950 Ala. LEXIS 207, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-v-dean-ala-1950.