Camp v. Montgomery
Camp v. Montgomery
Opinion of the Court
Montgomery brought suit against Camp for a bill of lumber, which’ he alleged by his declaration he furnished the defendant. Upon the trial, ifc was shown that the lumber was furnished from a mill, owned and run jointly by the plaintiff and defendant, together with J. L. Camp, who owned one-half of defendant’s interest therein. Montgomery owned one-half and the two Camps the other half. Montgomery was to conduct the operations of the mill, to pay all its expenses from Ihe proceeds, and to divide the net profits equally between himself and the Camps. The defendant insisted, and it so appeared from the evidence and from the entries on the books kept by plaintiff, that the lumber was furnished for the joint use of himself and brother, J. L. Camp.
The controlling question in the case was this, whether there was a partnership existing in the milling business between the plaintiff and defendant; and it was insisted by the plaintiff that no such partnership existed between him and the defendant, however it might be as to third parties, because a participation in the net profits alone would not constitute a partnership between him and the defendant
In Sankey & Shorter vs. The Columbus Iron Works, 44 Ga., 228, this section of the Code (1890) was critically examined and thoroughly discussed, and the court reached the conclusion that a joint interest in the partnership property was another and a very distinct thing from a common interest in the profits alone; the former interest is that of an owner, who has a right to dispose of the profits, and that makes him a partner; but a common interest in the profits confers no title jointly with the other, and gives no power to control and dispose of the profits as the owner. To adopt the language of the court in that case, “We take it for granted that it was not intended by the Code to change the well-settled rule upon this subject, to-wit, that if parlies go into an adventure, one furnishing money or stock and the other skill or labor, and to share the net profits, they are partners, since it follows that in such a case they have a joint interest in the profits,” as contra-distinguished from a common interest, which would not constitute such a relation. Id., 334, 336. In that case, the character of the interest in profits necessary to create a partnership was the only question involved. But ours is a much clearer case, since it was admitted that the parties were the joint owners of the property—were seized thereof per my and per tout from the use of which the profits were derived, and it falls directly within the terms employed in defining a partnership by section 1887 of the Code.
Instead of these principles, the judge of the city court of Rome charged the jury, “that if, by the contract between the plaintiff, Montgomery, and the defendant, Camp, in regard to the running of the saw-mill, Camp was to be responsible for no part of the expenses or losses, but was to have a share of the profits only, such a contract would not make them partners in running the mill, and Montgomery was entitled to sue in his own name for the lumber
Judgment reversed.
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