Gulick v. Gulick
Gulick v. Gulick
Opinion of the Court
This was an action of assumpsit brought by William Gulick, the defendant in error, against John and Jacob Gulick, who are the plaintiffs in error. The plaintiff below having given some evidence of a partnership or connection in business, as stage owners or otherwise, between the defendants, produced three documents, which are marked and referred to in the bill of exceptions, as exhibits A, B, & C. After proving that these documents were all in the hand writing of John Gulick, one of the defendants, the plaintiff offered them in evidence. To this the defendants objected'; but the court overruled the objection, and admitted the papers to be read to the jury. I11 doing so, it is supposed that the Court of Common Pleas committed an error. The document marked C, appears to be an account current, between John and Jacob Gulick, on the one side, and William Gulick on the other, commencing in May, 1825, and continuing down to February, 1828. On the credit side of this account, among other items, William Gur lick is credited with one thousand two hundred and sixty dollars, and seventy-six cents, in the following manner: viz. “ April, 1826. By our assumption on statement of stage settlement to April, 1826, and for James McLure and Isaac Gulick as per statement, one thousand two hundred and sixty dollars and seventy-six cents.” No legal objection is perceived to the admissibility of this paper in evidence. It is an account in the handwriting of one of the defendants, admitting a balance due from him and his partner, (if they were partners) to the plaintiff; and while unexplained and uncontradicted, would sustain the action provided the plaintiff had sufficiently proved the partnership of the defendants; and whether he had done so or not, was a question for the jury. This paper then being legal evidence, and no separate or specific objection having been urged below, against its admission, or the admission of either of the others, it may be doubted whethor the plaintiffs in error are entitled to be heard in opposition to them here. But upon inspecting the other documents, I am satisfied, that they too were legal and proper evidence. One of the items credited by the defendants to the plaintiff below, was their assumption of a bal
S'econd error assigned; which is, on the refusal of the court to nonsuit the plaintiff. The ground upon which a motion for a nonsuit was made, and on which the plaintiffs in error now seek a reversal of the judgment, is, that the plaintiff’s demand was founded on a partnership transaction, in which the plaintiffs and the defendant in error, with others, were concerned as partners. If the suit was brought by the plaintiff below, solely to recover money claimed to be due to him from the defendants on a partnership transaction between him and them, or in which he and they, with others, were concerned as partners, then the motion to nonsuit the plaintiff would have been the proper course, and would have brought up the question intended to be raised by the plaintiffs in error. But it is not perceived how such a motion could be sustained upon the evidence in this case. The plaintiff brought an action of assumpsit, and in support of it, gave in evidence an account made out by the defendants or one of them, claiming sundry credits to themselves, and giving various credits to the plaintiff, and upon the foot of the account showing a balance in favor of the plaintiff. It is true, one of
That one partner either before or after a dissolution, cannot maintain an implied assumpsit against his copartner, is conceded. But it is not true as a general proposition, that no action at law can be maintained for moneys due upon a partnership transaction. If there has been a dissolution of the partnership, a settlement, a balance struck, and an express promise to pay, an action may be maintained. Westerlo v. Evertson, 1 Wend. Rep. 532; Neven v. Spikerman, 12 Johns. Rep. 401; Casey v. Brush, 2 Caines Rep. 293 ; Moravia v. Levy, 2 T. R. 483, in note ; Foster v. Allanson, 2 T. R. 479. Now, in this case, there was a settlement of the general stage concern, called the Exchange Line; or at least, sufficient evidence of one, to go to the jury. There was also evidence of a balance struck in favor of the plaintiff; and there is express written evidence of an assumption or promise to pay that balance, in the hand writing of one defendant, made in the presence of another : and this balance is afterwards actually carried to the credit of the plaintiff, in an account stated between the plaintiff and the defendants, also in the hand writing of one of the defendants. To this it is answered, that there was 110 dissolution of the partnership. Whether when partners meet, settle up their accounts to a given day, ascertain the balances due to and from the individual partners on that day; and the debtor partner expressly assumes and promises to pay the balance due from him to another partner, to whom the firm is indebted, an action can be maintained
The evidence of a separate and distinct partnership between the defendants in this case, is not very clear, but upon looking into the bill of exceptions, I am of opinion it was sufficient to go to the jury. The judgment, therefore, ought to be affirmed with costs.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- JOHN GULICK and JACOB GULICK v. WILLIAM GULICK
- Status
- Published