63 Mo. App. 473 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1895
This suit originated before a justice of the peace and was brought to recover a balance due for sawing some logs into lumber. Plaintiff and one
Defendant attacks the judgment on several technical grounds, none of which have any merit. It is said that the plaintiff did not show himself entitled to sue on the account, — that it was a chose in action belonging jointly to plaintiff Boyle & Gideon, and that therefore neither of them could sue alone therefor. The contention is without merit. The testimony stands quite uncontradicted (and the jury so found) that before the suit was commenced, plaintiff bought out the interest of Gideon in the account. Plaintiff thereupon became the real party in interest and was the only proper party plaintiff. That there was no assignment in writing is of no consequence; an oral contract of purchase was sufficient.
Neither do we discover any substantial objections to the instructions. Since the defendant refused to pay for the manufacture of the lumber by delivering to the plaintiff the one half thereof, as he had agreed to, he had broken the terms of the contract, and plaintiff was entitled to abandon the special contract and sue in
This was not an action on a special contract and therefore the objection that plaintiff could not sue on a special contract and recover on quantum meruit, is not well taken. It was such a statement as, being filed with the justice, would authorize recovery whether the evidence would show the one or the other. Lemon v. Lloyd, 46 Mo. App. 456, 457; Johnson v. Loomis, 50 Mo. App. 144.
In none of the points suggested in defendant’s brief do we find any reason for disturbing the judgment and it will therefore be affirmed.