109 Mo. App. 95 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1904
Plaintiff’s petition charges that the defendants were successfully operating a canning factory at Fair Play, Missouri, in October, 1898, and prior thereto; that defendant Hicks, acting for himself and the other defendants, went to Humansville, a town in the same county, and with a view of securing a bonus for the purpose of erecting, operating and maintaining a canning factory at Humansville, represented to the citizens and the plaintiffs that an institution of that kind would be a great benefit to the community and that it would be a success, as defendants had successfully operated one at Fair Play; that Hicks further represented that he would operate and maintain a canning factory at Humansville if the citizens would raise a bonus of $1,500; that subscription lists, in accordance with said representations, were circulated and the required amount subscribed. There were sixty subscribers, each one agreeing to pay a specified amount, and no subscriber was, in any way, obligated to pay the amount subscribed by another. It was also set out that defendants erected the canning factory, received the bonus, and after' operating the factory two years proceeded to tear it down and remove it from Humansville without reimbursing these plaintiffs or the other subscribers and in violation of the representations that, they would maintain said factory at Humansville. Plaintiffs asked judgment for the aggregate amount subscribed by them, and “that the amount paid by each plaintiff be refunded to him under
•. Defendants contend that it being a suit at law, there.is a misjoinder of parties plaintiff. The subscriptions of plaintiffs were not joint but several, each plaintiff subscribing a certain sum and no one subscriber being liable for the default of another. -Notwithstanding the contract is the same, the obligation of each plaintiff is independent of that of every other of his coplaintiffs. It is plain that each one of said subscribers to said contract has a .complete and independent remedy at law pn the contract. So far as each plaintiff is concerned, the law affords him a complete remedy. And it is an axiom that equity will not interfere in such cases. Adams’ Equity, p. 314 (8 Ed.), in speaking of joinder says: “The interests, however,
The suit in question does not fall under any of the three heads. The first has reference to property or the res that may be affected by the decree; the second refers to concurrent claims (the plaintiffs in the suit being independent), and the litigation of one of the plaintiffs’ claim would not exonerate defendants from liability to the others, and would not prevent contribution among defendants. The rule is stated thus in 1 Pomeroy’s Eq. Jurisprudence (2 Ed.), section 114: “The primary object is, that persons sufficiently interested may be before the court so that the relief may be properly adjusted among those entitled to it, the liabilities properly apportioned, and the incidental or consequential claim or interest of all may be fixed, and all may be bound in respect thereto by the single decree.”
By section 598, Eevised Statutes 1899, a defect of parties is a good ground of demurrer but it does not provide in terms that a misjoinder shall be canse for demurrer. And it has been held that, “where there is a misjoinder of plaintiffs a demurrer will lie not solely on account of the misjoinder but because in such a case the complaint does not state a cause of action in favor of the plaintiff.” Barbour on Pleadings to Actions (2 Ed), 459. The distinction, however, is technical and immaterial under our practice, as a failure of the pleading to state a cause of action is, as a matter of course, a good ground for demurrer.
It is further contended that the alleged cause of action comes within the statute of frauds as the con
Affirmed.