Swan v. Nesmith
Swan v. Nesmith
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was afterward delivered by
In this case, it is stated in the report, that the plaintiff offered the testimony of witnesses on the stand, to prove that at the time when the defendants received the goods for sale, they agreed verbally to guarantee the sales.
This evidence was objected to, on the ground that by the statute of frauds a contract of guarantee, to be binding, must be in writing, and that parol evidence to prove it was not admissible.
Now this depends upon-the question, whether the undertaking of the defendants to guarantee the sales was original or collateral. The defendants were commission merchants, and as sitr.h they received the goods for sale in the way of their business. The evidence went to prove, that when they received the goods, they guaranteed the sales ; for this they had their commission, and in the mercantile language, it was a del credere commission.
The legal effect of such a contract is to make them liable at all events for the proceeds of the sale, so that according to
We assume, from the terms of the report, that the evidence admitted proved such a contract as we have above described, and that the verdict of the jury was founded upon the fact so proved. But on the supposition that the three original counts were not sustained by the evidence", we have considered the objection to the subsequent counts allowed to be filed on leave to amend. They set forth, in different forms, the contract as proved, viz. a promise to guarantee the sales of the goods. This does not appear to us to be a different cause of action from that set forth in the first series of counts. They are at
Judgment according to verdict.
See Theobald on Princip. & Surety, 64; Chitty on Contr. (4th Am. ed.) 171, 403.
But see Morris v. Cleasby, 4 Maule & Selw. 566; 2 Kent, (3d ed.) 624, note e.
See Vancleef v. Therasson, 3 Pick. (2nd ed.) 14, note 1; Revised Stat. c. 100, § 22 St. 1836, c. 273, § 3.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- James Swan versus John P. Nesmith
- Status
- Published