Schofield's Sons Co. v. Duggan & Jones
Schofield's Sons Co. v. Duggan & Jones
Opinion of the Court
Schofield’s Sons Company sued Duggan & Jones on an open account which in the trial the defendants did not deny, but against which they sought to set off the value of a car of lumber. Sams-Mathews Lumber Company was indebted to Schofield’s Sons Company, and the evidence showed that in repeated letters they offered to settle the indebtedness in part by delivering lumber. Schofield’s Sons Company finally, under this offer, ordered a car, and after some correspondence received a letter from SamsMathews Company, as follows: “Deferring to your order L-8826, beg to advise that we are loading this order in car Sou. 133893, and same will go forward tomorrow or Monday.” Sams-Mathews company procured this lumber from Duggan, or had Duggan ship it to Schofield. Mathews, the manager of the company, testified in portions of his evidence that Sams-Mathews Company, being themselves unable to furnish the lumber ordered, had before the ship
1. “Ordinarily, when one renders services or transfers property valuable to another, which the latter accepts, a promise is implied to pay the reasonable value thereof.” Civil Code (1910), § 5513. The evidence was in dispute as to whether it was the defendant, or the person With whom the plaintiff had originally contracted for the car of lumber, who was the owner thereof at the time of shipment to the plaintiff. The evidence was slight as to knowledge by the plaintiff that the car belonged to the defendant at the time of shipment, acceptance, and use by the plaintiff. The bill of lading, together with the invoice which designated Schofield as debtor to Duggan, demanded an inference that Duggan was the shipper, and that the shipment was “from Duggan’s lumbar,” and that Schofield had knowledge that the lumber had originally belonged to Duggan, and they authorized a finding that the plaintiff had knowledge that, while Sams-Mathews Company had contracted to deliver the car, they were unable to do so, and upon their request Duggan was making the delivery, which the plaintiff had previously requested from the company, and that Duggan was the owner of the
2. The instructions of the court fairly submitted the question at issue to the jury, and contained no material error. The trial judge in the exercise of his discretion having overruled the motion for new trial, this court can not interfere.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.