8 N.H. 182 | Superior Court of New Hampshire | 1835
There is no legal ground for the position, that the subscribers to a petition for a highway are not lia
The defendant when he signed the petition must have understood that it was to be presented, and that expenses would be incurred. He might, as between himself and his co-signers, have protected himself by an agreement that he was not to be charged with any portion of those expenses. As he did not, the presumption is that he was willing to be accountable along with the others. Nor is it necessary to show that he expressly concurred in the appointment of the plaintiff as agent. He did not dissent. And if he, having signed the petition, left the measures which should be subsequently adopted to the determination of the others, he must be held as assenting to what they caused to be done in the ordinary course.
But the plaintiff can recover of the defendant no more than his equal proportion of the expenses and services. The argument of the plaintiff’s counsel, that when several unite in a common object, and employ an agent to act for them, they are jointly liable for his services and expenses,
In Sproat vs. Porter, 9 Mass. Rep. 300, no question was made whether the defendants were severally, or jointly, liable. The plaintiff, it is true, was one of the associates, but the question was, whether those who were not present at his appointment as agent, and took no active part in procuring his services, were liable by reason of their having
In Jewett vs. Hodgdon, 3 Green. 103; and Same vs. Cornforth, ib. 107, it seems to have been understood that the proper course was to bring several actions for contribution.
The result is, that the former judgment was for too great a sum, and the defendant must recover the difference between the amount of damages assessed in that judgment and the amount now found by the auditor. .
Richardson, C. J., did not sit.