55 Mo. 524 | Mo. | 1874
delivered the opinion of the court.
This was an action on a promissory note for five hundred dollars.
The note is a negotiable note and reads as follows:
($500.00.) St. Louis, October 2'Tth, 1868.
Thirty days after date, I promise to pay to the order of Benson Bond, Five Hundred Dollars for value received, negotiable and payable without defalcation or discount at- ----. L. W. Bemis.
On which note the name of the plaintiff “Benson Bond” appears to have been indorsed in blank.
The defendant by way of answer to plaintiff’s petition founded on his note, substantially set up the averment that prior to the making of said note, he and plaintiff had been in partnership in business in the City of St. Louis, and that the firm was indebted to the amount of some eight thousand dollars ; and that the plaintiff retired from the firm under an agreement
The law is well settled, that one partner cannot maintain an action at law against his co-partner for money paid on account of the indebtedness of the firm. Such debts can only be adjusted on a final settlement between the partners; and a suit in chancery is the proper remedy. This note, though standing in the name of the defendant as maker, and plaintiff as payee, was from the allegations of this answer the note of the firm, given to raise money to meet their liabilities. When the plaintiff took up the note, if the facts stated in the answer be true, the firm became liable to him for the amount; but whether anything would be due to him, after taking into consideration all the debts and liabilities of the firm, and the payments which each member may have made, could only be ascertained by a final settlement.
In my judgment the answer set up facts sufficient to con
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.