Carolina Grocery Co. v. Moore
Carolina Grocery Co. v. Moore
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
The two cases above named were heard together. The first named case, commenced May 4, 1901, was upon three causes of action, two of which were founded upon promissory notes and the other was upon an account for goods sold and delivered. The second named case, commenced June 1st, 1901, was upon a promissory note. The defendant’s attorney conceiving that the complaints had not been properly verified, served unverified answers, containing a general denial, but said answers were immediately returned to defendant’s attorney for want of verification. Nothing more was done in the cases until more than fourteen days before the opening of the Court of Common Pleas for Barnwell County (which convened on the 16th of July, 1901), when, by direction of plaintiff’s attorney, the cases were docketed for trial upon calendar No. 1. On the 6th of July, 1901, defendant’s attorneys served upon plaintiff’s attorney in each case a notice of motion to require plaintiff’s attorney to accept said answers, the motions being noticed to be heard at the opening of the Court of Common Pleas; and on the nth of July, 1901, defendant’s attorneys served a further notice, that upon the hearing of the motion previously noticed, he would urge as an additional ground that plaintiff’s attorney had wáived his objection to said answers by docketing the cases for trial on calendar No. 1. These motions, at the instance of defendant’s attorneys, were docketed upon calendar No. 2 for hear *186 ing. During the week preceding the opening of the Common Pleas, plaintiff’s attorney had the cases placed upon calendar No. 3 as default cases. This was the condition when the cases came up for a hearing on the call of calendar 3, July 17, 1901, when the presiding Judge, Hon. James Aldrich, passed an order overruling defendant’s motion to require acceptance of the unverified answers, and providing that plaintiff have judgment for a specified sum in each case, and at the same time indorsed upon the complaint in each case the usual order for judgment by default. From the judgments entered thereon the defendant now appeals upon exceptions assigning error: (1) in holding that the complaints were improperly verified; (2) in giving judgment by default, when the cases were on calendar 1 for trial, and no motion made to transfer or strike off; (3) in holding that the regular docketing by plaintiff on calendar No. 1 was not a waiver of plaintiff’s previous objection to the answers and an acceptance thereof; and (4) in giving two orders for judgment in each of said cases.
1. The complaint was properly verified. The verification in the first named case was as follows, that in the second riamed case being practically the same: “State of South Carolina, County of Charleston. Personally appeared before me, W. B. Wilson, who, being duty sworn, deposes and says, that he is the lawful agent of the plaintiff in this action; that he has read the foregoing complaint, and the allegations therein are true of his own knowledge. The deponent’s knowledge is derived from the fact that he was manager of the business carried on by the said plaintiff, Thomas Wilson, under the name and style of the ‘Carolina Groceiy Company,’ and from the notes mentioned in said complaint which were in the possession of this deponent up to the time they were delivered to the plaintiff’s attorney for the purposes of this suit and from the admissions of the defendant to this deponent. Deponent further says that the reason why this verification is not made by the plaintiff is that the material allegations of the complaint are not within *187 the personal knowledge of the plaintiff. W. B. Wilson. Sworn to before me, this 29th day of April, A. D. 1901. [r. s.] D. M. Murphy, Notary Public S. C.”
The judgment of the Circuit Court is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Carolina Grocery Co v. Moore (Two Cases).
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. PeEadings. — A Verification by an agent of a plaintiff in an action on notes and open account, in which he swears that he is the manager of plaintiff’s business, that the notes were in his possession until delivered to plaintiff’s attorney to be sued, and that the allegations as to the .account were within his personal knowledge and true, is a proper verification. 2. Judgment — Defauet—CaeEndars—Waiver.—Where a defendant serves an unverified answer to a verified complaint which is immediately returned, and plaintiff places the case on calendars i and 3, and defendant moves on notice to have plaintiff required to accept his unverified answers, which is heard on calendar 3, upon refusal of the motion, it is proper to give plaintiff judgment by default; and the fact that plaintiff had also placed the case on calendar 1, is not a waiver of his right to demand judgment by default. 3. Ibid. — There is no prejudicial error in giving two orders for judgment in one case.