Adams v. Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance
Adams v. Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This suit was instituted on the bond of Adams, executed to appellees; the principal and sureties being sued. The sureties answered, denying that there had been any breach of the conditions of the bond. No proof whatever was offered by plaintiff showing that there had been any such breach. He contented himself with offering an itemized account, properly sworn to, to which there was no counter affidavit. The court, however, struck out the plea of the sureties and practically directed a verdict for the amount sued for, instructing the jury that a verdict should be for the plaintiff if the plaintiff’s demand had been proven by the itemized and verified account, and declining to grant the peremptory instruction requested by the defendants.
Bearing in mind the obvious fact that this is a suit on the bond, the case is perfectly controlled by the opinion in American Surety Co. v. United States, etc., 76 Miss. 289, 24 South. 388. It is there said: “But the court proceeded on the errone
For this error, if there were no other, the case would have to-be reversed. However, since there must be a new trial, it is well to remark that appellant Adams is not precluded from making an attack upon the judgment rendered by the justice of the peace merely because he has executed an appeal bond to the circuit court. That question is distinctly decided in Dufour v. Chapotel, 75 Miss. 656, 23 South. 387.
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- James W. Adams v. Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Bonds. Suits on. Open accounts. Code 1892, § 1801. Code 1906, § 1978. A suit upon a bond is not within Code 1892, § 1801 (Code 1906, § 1978), authorizing the proof of open accounts by affidavits, although the damages recoverable for a breach of the bond be the value of goods charged in the account. 2. Judgments. Want of notice. Justice of the peace. Appeal. Circuit court. A defendant against whom a judgment has been rendered in a justice’s court without notice, may assail its validity on direct appeal to the circuit court.