Beard v. Heck
Beard v. Heck
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The defendant, the owner of a tract of timber land, sold the timber thereon to one Fenicle, who employed the plaintiff to haul the timber cut thereon to his mill. After carrying on the lumber operation upon the defendant’s land for a certain time, Fenicle failed, owing the plaintiff 1170.32. The defendant employed the plaintiff to continue hauling upon the lumber operation for him and admitted an indebtedness to the plaintiff therefor of 136.75. Plaintiff alleged that, as an inducement to his continuing at work, the defendant offered to pay him the amount due from Fenicle. This was denied by the defendant and the terms of the contract between them became the principal question at issue, which was submitted to the jury.
The question of the legality of the tender’made by the defendant to the plaintiff before the justice and subsequently, renewed at the trial in the court below, raised by the first and fifth specifications of error, is not a practical one, inasmuch as the verdict of the jury was for an amount greater than the tender ; and, as the judgment entered upon the verdict should, in our opinion, be sustained, may be eliminated from the consideration of the case.
The second and third assignments of error relate to testimony which the defendant asked to have stricken from the record. The court declined to comply with the request but proposed instead to say to the jury that the portion of the testimony outside of the immediate contract between the parties was immaterial. This was done in the charge, in which the court said, referring to the testimony as to which the motion to strike out was made: “ So
The fourth specification assigns as error a portion of the paragraph of the charge of the court, in which the testimony therein set forth was entirely withdrawn from the consideration of the jury. It does not contain a complete proposition and, taken in its connections, was a practical compliance Avith appellant’s request. The case was fairly tried and clearly submitted to the jury for its finding and the only real question involved in it was the credibility of the witnesses on the one side and the other. With the finding of the jury in that behalf we have nothing to do. It was peculiarly and exclusively Avithin their province. Upon a consideration of the whole case, we find no reversible error.
Judgment affirmed.
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- Question for jury — Debt of another — Statute of frauds — Original undertaking. The question whether a defendant agreed to pay a debt of another as part of an agreement to induce plaintiff to resume work on an operation assumed by defendant, is a question peculiarly and exclusively within the province of the jury. Such an agreement is an original undertaking and does not offend against the statute of frauds.. There is sufficient consideration for it. Charge of court — Motion to strike out testimony. The refusal to strike certain testimony from the record is not error where the trial court instructs the jury: “ So that is a matter entirely outside of this case and irrelevant and you have nothing to do with it; you need not consider it.” Such instruction disposed of such testimony as effectually as if it had been stricken from the record.