133 P. 137 | Wyo. | 1913
Lead Opinion
The defendant in error, George G. Carroll, brought this action in the District Court of Sheridan County, against the plaintiff in error, Peter Demple, to recover the sum of one thousand dollars and interest alleged to be due on a certain written agreement. The case was tried to the court without a jury, and judgment rendered against the defendant below (Demple), and he brings error.
The plaintiff, Carroll, alleged in his petition, in substance, that prior' to May 16, 19T1, he was the owner of a large
“This 16th day of May, 1911, know all men by these presence, that said G. G. Carroll has this day .sold unto Peter Demple his right, title and interest in the Sheridan Manufacturing Company for the sum of (one thousand dollars) $1,000.00 cash. Said Peter Demple agrees to assume all of said G. G. Carroll obligations of the Sheridan Mfg. Co. (Signed) “Peter Demple.”
That one of the obligations incurred by the plaintiff for and in behalf of said company and which was unpaid and owing at the time said contract was made was the sum of $1,000, and interest which had been advanced by plaintiff for said company about December 7, 1908, in payment for wheat sold and delivered to said company by W. S. Metz; which sum the plaintiff borrowed from the First National Bank of Sheridan on his personal note. That defendant had failed and refused to pay said note in accordance with his contract, and that plaintiff was compelled to and did pay said note. Alleged the payment of the $1,000 cash.
The defendant in his answer admitted the purchase of the interest and shares of stock in the company; that he paid plaintiff $1,000, as part of the consideration therefor; and that he signed the instrument set out in the petition. Alleged “that at the time of making the contract and agreement set out in paragraph one of said petition and the purchase by defendant from plaintiff, plaintiff’s interest and stock in said Sheridan Manufacturing Company it was fully agreed, understood and intended by the plaintiff and
We have set o'ut at length the allegations of the answer containing what the defendant sought to prove by way of an affirmative defense to the action, in order that the rulings and decision of the court may clearly appear. We think it clearly appears by the answer and the defendant’s evidence that the obligation sued upon was one of the class
While the court refused to allow the defendant to amend his answer, he did permit him to introduce his evidence tending to prove fraud and misrepresentations on the part of the plaintiff as to the indebtedness of the company, and tending to prove that he was only to assume certain specified debts. But on those matters the evidence was conflicting and to our minds was insufficient to sustain the charge of fraud or misrepresentations had the amendment been allowed. At the close of the evidence the court, on motion of plaintiff, excluded all testimony offered by defendant attempting to alter or vary the terms of the written agreement. In this there was no error. Under the pleadings such testimony was clearly inadmissible. Many rulings of the court sustaining objections to testimony are assigned as error in the motion for a new trial, but as they related to the testimony offered to vary the terms of the writing need not be considered separately. It is also assigned as error that the court excluded the testimony of one Whitney, a witness for defendant. Counsel are mistaken in this. The record shows that but one question asked this witness was objected to by counsel for plaintiff and that objection was overruled, and at the end of his examination in chief counsel for plaintiff moved to strike out all of his testimony as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, which motion was denied. It is also made a ground in the motion for a new - trial, that defendant was surprised that this witness did not
It is further contended that the court erred in permitting the plaintiff to introduce any evidence for the reason that the petition did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. With that contention we do not agree. The substance of the petition is set out at the beginning of
Finding no prejudicial error in the record the judgment is affirmed. ' Affirmed.
Rehearing
ON PETITION EOR REHEARING.
Plaintiff in er'ror has filed a petition for a rehearing in which it is claimed we did not give proper consideration to the alleged errors assigned in the motion for a new trial. The main contention now is that we did not consider the objection that the- judgment was excessive and should have been for only $500, if for any amount, for the reason that Garroll was the owner of one-half of the capital stock of the Sheridan Manufacturing Co. The claim of plaintiff below, as we- understand' the pleading, was that the company was- indebted to Metz in the sum of $1,000, and not having the-money to pay Metz, Carroll advanced it for the company;' that the company failed to repay him and still owed him-that amount when Demple executed'the instrument sued on. It was the company (a corporation) which was his debtor and not the stockholders, and the fact that he was a stockholder did not make the company any less the debtor and him its creditor than if he had been an outside party. It was the debt of the company to him that Demple assumed. The fact that he borrowed'the money and when he renewed the note another stockholder became surety on the note did not change his liability, or the company’s obligation to him; and the evidence sufficiently shows that he paid the full amount. The amount of the company’s indebtedness to him at the time of the transaction with Demple and at the time of the trial was $1,000, which Demple had assumed. The judgment therefore was not excessive.
Other questions with reference to the alleged newly discovered evidence, the exclusion of certain testimony, and the refusal of the court to permit the defendant to amend his answer during the trial, have been argued in the brief on petition for rehearing. They were considered and decided in the opinion (133 Pac. 137), and on a re-examination of the record the views expressed in the opinion are adhered to. As was there said, we think the case w.as fairly tried upon the issues presented by the pleadings, and the judgment sufficiently supported by the evidence. A rehearing will therefore be denied. Rehearing denied.