Woodruff v. Clark
Woodruff v. Clark
Opinion of the Court
Assumpsit by Glarh against Woodruff. The declaration contains two counts. The first is on a promissory note; the second is for goods, wares, and merchandise sold and delivered.
The defendant pleaded, 1, Non assumpsit; 2, That as to $166.14, part, &c., he, the defendant, before the commencement of the suit, &c., paid that sum to the plaintiff in manner following, viz., that said plaintiff was then and there, and still is, idebted to the defendant in the said sum of $166.14 for goods, wares, and merchandise, before that time sold and delivered by defendant to plaintiff at his request, and for money
We think the demurrer to the second plea ought to have *been overruled. That plea is pleaded as a bar to a part only of the sum demanded, and alleges payment of that part, and according to the requirements of the statute on which it is founded, sets out a contract by which it appears that the plaintiff was indebted to the defendant in the amount alleged to be paid. The demurrer therefore was not well taken, and the Court erred in sustaining it.
There was no error in sustaining the demurrer to the third plea. Á suit at law can not be maintained on the decree of a Court of chancery, 2 Blackf., 31; 8 Wheat., 697, except it be a foreign decree, in which case, by express statutory provision, an action of debt may be maintained. The decree pleaded in this case was not a foreign decree, and therefore does-not come within the exception. It is manifest, that if an action at law could not be maintained on the decree, it can not be set up, as a legal defense, in such action.
■On the trial, the defendant offered the decree in evidence under the general issue, but the Court rejected it; to which the defendant excepted. It follows from what has been already said, that the Court did not err in refusing the testimony. If the decree could not be pleaded in bar of the action, it could not be given in evidence to defeat it.
The Court erred in sustaining the demurrer to the second p.lea, for which reason the judgment must be reversed.
Per Curiam.—The judgment is reversed with costs. Cause remanded, &c. '
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