First National Bank v. Bank of Keystone
First National Bank v. Bank of Keystone
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff, sueeeissor of the ¡Citizens Bank of Welch, sued defendant in assumpsit, a state bank organized for the purpose and which in 1905, purchased and took over the business, property and assets of a branch of the Citizens Bank of Welch, theretofore conducted at Keystone, to recover an alleged balance due it under the contract of sale and purchase made and executed by and on behalf of the respective parties thereto.
The declaration contained the common cotints, also a special count on the. contract, the latter alleging a breach thereof by defendant. Besides the general issue, two special pleas in writing were filed by defendant over the objection of plaintiff, pleading in abatement of the suit an alleged judgment or award of arbitrators, pending the suit, to whom it is alleged all matters in difference in the suit had been submitted by a parol contract between the parties. The demurrer of plaintiff to the special pleas was overruled, and issue was joined on the plea of non assumpsit and on the special pleas with general replication thereto, and the case submitted to the court in lieu of a jury, and for final judgment.
On tire special pleas the court found for plaintiff; but on the merits, and on the general issue, the court found for defendant, and the judgment of nil capiat has been brought here by plaintiff for review.
By the contract pleaded in the special count the Citizens Bank of Welch agreed to turn over and séli to defendant as of April 1, 1905, said branch, its safe, stationery, discount accounts, deposit accounts, and all other property of its branch bank, and the defendant thereby agreed to purchase the same, and to pay plaintiff’s predecessor therefor the original cost price; also to reimburse and pay it any and all sums lost in excess of all earnings of the branch bank, in 'the payment of sala^, rent, traveling expenses, and all other outlays in the conduct of said branch bank, from its establishment up to April 1, 1905.
The original bill of particulars filed with the declaration contained two items, as follows: To account stated, May 21, 1908, $562.37. Proceeds note for $300.00, .dated Jan. 11, 1905, due 90 days after'date, made by Ira. P. Quesenbery, endorsed &c.,
It appears from the record that after the purchase of the business of this branch bank by defendant, the old account between the parent and the branch bank was continued on the books of the plaintiff, and that the $816.44, was the balance shown by the books of the plaintiff bank to be due from the defendant to it, as of October- 2, 1908, when all business relations ceased, and this suit, after some efforts to adjust differences failed, was brought in December following.
The view we take of the case renders it unnecessary for us to deal with the cross-assignments of error relating to the special pleas in writing. In our opinion the findings of fact and the judgment of the court below thereon for defendant on the general issue must be sustained.
On the trial the two items of the original bill of particulars were practically abandoned, and reliance was placed solely on the item added by the amendment: “To account stated, $816.44.” There is no evidence of an account stated covering this iterq. The only evidence relating to it is that plaintiff’s books show this balance. The evidence is not as clear, it seems to us, as it might have been on the matters of account to which the contract relates. It is quite clear, however, that after the sale and purchase by defendant o"f the branch bank, the parent bank rendered defendant an account of items of expenses disbursed by it on account of the business of the branch bank, including the item, safe $800.00, and aggregating about $1,208.21, and with which defendant credited it. Included in this statement were items of expenses disbursed by the parent bank, aggregating $312.72, which the cashier of defendant, who was also cashier of the branch bank, and kept its books, swears were credited to the parent bank, and charged to expenses. The balance $629.23, he swears “was the amount of our loss,” and was the amount paid out by the branch bank, and carried there in expense account, and which with the $312.72, charged to that account, on the rendition of the account for $1,208.21, by the parent
Affirmed.
Reference
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