5 Wash. 125 | Wash. | 1892
The opinion of the court was delivered by
In passing upon appellant’s motion for a non-suit, the judge who tried the cause remarked that the testimony showed that the transfer of the note sued on was made by the officers of the Kettle Falls Improvement Company. Appellant complains of this as a violation of § 16, art. é of the constitution, prohibiting judges from com-
The motion for non-suit was made on the ground that the plaintiff had not shown that the president and secretary of the Kettle Falls Improvement Company had authority to endorse and transfer the note. In denying the motion the court said it would be assumed that the officers named. acted within the scope of their authority. It might be questioned whether this ruling would stand the test of rigid scrutiny; but there was then in the case testimony tending to show that the maker of the note, appellant here, who was an officer of the company, himself suggested and requested that Blue should cash the note in order that the company might prosecute some of its plans, and it was in pursuance of appellant’s request that the assumed transfer was made, and the money paid. Therefore appellant was in no position to take advantage of a technical want of authority in the president and secretary.
A charge that the corporation must have had authority from the company’s board of directors to transfer the note would have been proper enough had it been accompanied by other charges sufficient to inform the jury that such authority might be conferred in many ways; as, for instance, by the general consent of every person interested.
The instructions asked upon the theory of fraudulent representations made to procure the execution of the note were properly refused. The complaint was insufficient to sustain a defense of this kind, and the evidence entirely failed to produce any fact from which fraud could be argued. Besides which appellant consented and voted for the very thing of which he most complains.
Appellant objected to the entry of a judgment against him upon the verdict of the jury. The form of the verdict was as follows:
“We, the jury, in the case of Louis Blue, plaintiff, v. The Kettle Falls Improvement Company, defendant, find for the plaintiff, and assess his damages at the sum of eight hundred dollars. ’ ’
The title of a cause is used in a verdict merely to identify it with the cause, and it is not necessary that all of the parties be named in order that it may be a good verdict against each one. If it can be fairly gathered what the intention of the jury was, it will be given effect accordingly. There were two defendants named in the complaint, the Ke“ttle Falls Improvement Company and McCabe. The corporation, as far as we know from the record, did not appear or answer, and the case tried was not against it, but against McCabe alone. The jury could not, therefore, have meant to find against the corporation as they were not trying any matter in which it was interested. They simply found for the plaintiff, mentioning no .defendant, but intending the only defendant they had before them. The
Finding no error, the judgment is affirmed.