Rockdale Mercantile Co. v. Brown Shoe Co.
Rockdale Mercantile Co. v. Brown Shoe Co.
Opinion of the Court
Appellee brought this suit to recover a balance for merchandise sold by it to appellant, as evidenced by verified itemized account attached to its petition, and on trial before the court without a jury recovered judgment for the full amount claimed, to wit, $345.45, from which judgment this appeal is prosecuted.
*282 contention Irving v. T. & P. Ry. Co., 157 S. W. 752; Salliway. v. Grand Lodge, A. O. U. W., 164 S. W. 1041; City of San Antonio v. Bodeman, 163 S. W. 1043; Taylor v. Butler, 168 S. W. 1043. The contrary, however, has been held in a recent opinion by Hr. Chief Justice Phillips in Craver v. Greer, 179 S. W. S62, holding that where a case is tried before the court without a jury, a motion for new trial is not a prerequisite to the perfection of an appeal. See that case for a full and elaborate discussion of the question.
“As used in the statutes of this state, in act refen-ed to, we believe that the word ‘account’ is used in its popular sense, rather than in a technical sense, and that it applies to transactions between persons in which, by a sale upon the one side and purchase upon the other, the title of personal property passes from the one to the other, and the relation of debtor and creditor is thereby created by general course of dealing; and that it does not mean one or more isolated transactions resting upon special contract.”
The account sued on in this ease is not a stated account, as evidently was that in the case of Wroten Grain Co. v. Mineóla Box Co., supra. It is true that it was but a single purchase, but this does not prevent it from constituting an open account. The account in question shows a sale of the goods by appellee to appellant, stating the price charged therefor, and in every particular conforms to what is regarded by the authorities as an open account; and was therefore, when properly verified, as in the instant case prima facie evidence upon which appel-lee is entitled to judgment, in the absence of proof impeaching its validity or showing its incorrectness. In McCamant v. Batsell, supra, the claim sued upon was held not to be an open account within the meaning of article 3712, and therefore could not be established by the ex parte affidavit of the plaintiff. The suit in that case was brought to recover amounts paid by plaintiff for defendant on two security debts. It is true that the account sued upon in the case of Wroten Grain Co. v. Mineóla Box C'o., supra, would ordinarily have come within the purview of this article but for the fact that the plaintiff’s petition contained allegations showing that the account sued upon was no longer an open account, but in fact a stated account between the parties, and therefore could not be established by the ex parte affidavit of the plaintiff, and the court so held in that case.
Finding no error in the proceedings of the trial court, its judgment is, in all respects, affirmed.
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