Scruggs v. E. L. Woodley Lumber Co.
Scruggs v. E. L. Woodley Lumber Co.
Opinion of the Court
This was a suit to recover the balance due appellee for the sum of $391.-43, on a bill of lumber furnished to build a residence upon land, the legal title to which was in appellant, but who had contracted with one Smith to deed the land to him upon the payment of certain sums of money. It is alleged, in effect, that appellant made the order for the lumber and, upon a sufficient consideration, agreed to pay the bill upon the contract so entered into with appellant. Appellee delivered the lumber to Smith, who erected the house upon the land, to which appellant had the legal title. There was a verdict and judgment in favor of appellee for the amount sued for.
The first assignment will be overruled. The facts are sufficient to raise the question of an agreement; that is, that the minds of the parties met.
“The tickets were the matters of original entry and were the basis of the charges in such book, and that the tickets were the first and original entry.”
It will be observed that there was* no exception that the book kept, and the entries made were not entered in due course of business, and not correctly kept or proven up by the proper parties making them; the only objection being that the book was not the book of original entry. We shall, for the purpose of this opinion, presume all the necessary preliminary proof was made, and consider the sole question as to whether this was the book of original entry within the meaning of the rule. In Railway Co. v. Johnson, 7 S. W. 838, the Supreme Court, speaking •through Judge Gaines, said:
“It seems, however, pretty well established that the first permanent records of the transactions by the creditor are to be deemed original entries, if made within a short time after the transactions themselves, although the items may have been previously entered, as a temporary assistance to the memory, upon some slate, book, paper, or other substance not intended to be preserved. In an old case this court admitted the rule generally recognized in the courts of this country, but strongly animadverted upon it as a dangerous innovation of the principles of the common law, and refused to extend it, in cases of merchant’s account, beyond such articles as are usually sold by a merchant in course of his business. Cole v. Dial, 8 Tex. 347. It is usually confined to accounts for labor performed, or to goods sold by regular dealers in merchandise.”
In the case then under consideration, the court refused to extend tire rule to transactions between shippers of grain and the railroad. The appellant cites the case of Cathey v. Railway Co., 104 Tex. 39, 133 S. W. 417, 33 L. R. A. (N. S.) 103. In that ease the register of the railway company showed the time •trains pass the yards. This register was made up from slips or cards prepared and furnished the keeper of the register by the .employes operating the trains. It was held •these slips or cards were original evidence. In the case cited Judge Ramsey, who rendered the opinion of the court, cited the Johnson Case, evidencing thereby the shop rule would not be extended to registers of railroads as to the movement of its trains. In the case of Guthrie v. Mann, 35 S. W. 710, cited by appellant, the court simply held the books were not competent to prove a receipt, but the receipt itself should be proven. Pohl v. Bradford, 25 S. W. 984, held, as it is universally held, under the shopbook rule, that the ledger is not admissible where it is shown to have been made up from the daybook or journal. In Baldridge v. Penland, 68 Tex. 441, 4 S. W. 565, it is held the books of original entry should be produced or accounted for, and that items on the account which do not appear to be such as were usually dealt in by the business could not be proven by the books.
“In addition to the requirement that the entries in the book of account be made in the regular course of business, it is equally essential that they constitute the party’s original entries or the first permanent records of the transaction in question, in order to be admissible in evidence. Thus, if the entries are made in a daybook or journal and transferred thence to a ledger, the entries in the ledger are not competent, but it is no objection to the book, if otherwise regular, that the entries which they contain were first made temporarily. * * * The former strict idea of what constituted original entries has been modified to fit the necessities of new business conditions. Inasmuch as under the modern methods of extensive business houses the information relative to the transactions constituting the accounts must pass through various hands before being permanently recorded, some system of temporary memoranda preparatory to the permanent records is necessary to insure convenience as well as accuracy. It would be impracticable to preserve, for any length of time, the tags, slips, or tokens constituting such original memoranda, and impossible, in view of the changing of employés, to obtain the testimony of the persons who made the temporary memoranda or conducted the transaction. Hence, following the rule of necessity, the courts do not regard such temporary memoranda as the originals, but look to *899 the permanent records as such original entries when properly verified by a suppletory oath.”
See, also, Elliott on Evidence, vol. 1, §§ 459, 469; Rogers v. O’Barr et al., 81 S. W. 750; Barclay v. Deyerle, 53 Tex. Civ. App. 236, 116 S. W., on page 125. The boohs in this case clearly fall under the shopbook rule, and we think it is sufficient to show that the daybook or journal is the first permanent book of entry, and that, if the other necessary requirements are shown, is admissible, and that the slips of paper, used as memo-randa, are not, under this rule, the original entry, such as will require their production. This assignment will be overruled.
The fifth, seventh, and eighth assignments are overruled for the reasons given under the first assignment.
Reversed and remanded.
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