Wainwright v. Berry
Wainwright v. Berry
Opinion of the Court
The general provision, in relation to suits cognizable before a justice of the peace, directs that they shall be brought and tried in the town in which the plaintiff or defendant resides; but there is a special provision, which requires, that actions brought to recover any debt, dues, or demands, for any goods, wares, and merchandise, sold and delivered in any town in this state, the plaintiff having removed from, or not residing in such town, shall be brought in the town in which the goods, wares, or merchandise were sold and delivered, or in the town in which the defendant resides. ā (Com. Stat. p. 149.) The question presented by the pleadings is, whether the case is within the latter provision. Although the words of the provision are somewhat genera], yet the reason and object of it confine it to cases, where a person opens a shop or establishes business in a town, as a dealer or trader in goods, wares, or merchandise, and after-wards removes from the town, or transacts the business by his agent, not residing there himself. The act applies to a sale made by one who has thus established and carried on business in a town, in which he did not reside, or from which he has removed, and was never intended to apply to a single act of selling on a particular occasion, by one who did not use or follow the trade oĆ vending goods, wares, or merchandise, or, if he did, was only tflftisiently in the town in which the sale was made, and had no established business there. On a different construction of the act, if two persons residing in Middlebury should casually be in a remote town in the state, and one should there sell to the other an article of goods, it would be in the power of the vender to bring his action, to recover for the article sold, in such remote town.
But the action is brought upon a note of hand, and it may well fee doubted, whether the act ought to be construed to extend to
Judgement affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Rufus and Jonathan Wainwright v. Joseph Berry
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published