Stump v. Estill
Stump v. Estill
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The plaintiffs and defendant agreed in writing, sealed, that Estill should purchase cotton for them, ten thousand pounds’ weight, and deliver the same to them at his gin, the plaintiffs to pay him in money at three and six months ; the cotton was to be delivered after the time mentioned for payment of the first instalment. The plaintiffs paid a part of their first instalment in sugar and salt; the defendant refused to deliver the cotton; the
This allowance, in effect, is a dispensation with the rule of law, for if where a small part is not performed on the side of the plaintiff, he may still go on, the same will be the case if half, or two thirds, or three fourths is not performed; he may still go on upon the ground of the something, however small, that he has done.
This is equally as repugnant to justice as losing nearly all by the plaintiff after he has done the greater part; and the right medium is that which will not infringe either the rule that the plaintiff must aver performance on his part, or shall not wholly lose • whatever he has paid in part. The understanding of the parties in such case ought to be an implied agreement on the part of the defendant, that if after acceptance of part he chooses not to go on with performance of the residue on the part of the plaintiffs, that he shall not be compelled to do so, but shall be considered as having agreed that if the plaintiffs should not pay the residue, and jf the defendant should not choose to proceed, that he would return to the plaintiffs all that the defendant had received from him, and that on such implied understanding the plaintiff may have his action of assumpsit. Here, however, the case is more favorable for the plaintiffs, for in paying and receiving the two hundred dollars the defendant has acknowledged himself bound to pay for that which was delivered in part, and the plaintiffs, in accepting, have acknowledged that they do not claim the deliveries as in part performance of the agreement.
The action is well commenced, and may be sustained upon the facts stated in this record. As to the new trial moved for and refused by the Court below, the evidence went to establish two different conclusions; one of them the jury thought proper to adopt, and this Court cannot say that
Affirm the judgment.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STUMP AND COX v. ESTILL
- Status
- Published