161 Pa. 296 | Pa. | 1894
Opinion by
The action was in assumpsit, brought by Harrington against Bronson to recover for work done. William Harrington, the father of plaintiff, for many years had been the owner of a farm of about 240 acres in Windham township, Bradford county. He also kept a country store. The wife of William Harrington, mother of this plaintiff, owned another farm of 159 acres in her own right. In 1879, the father, being heavily in debt, and executions levied on all his personal property, solicited Bronson to aid him in some way to save his property. Bronson consented, and, in pursuance of an arrangement between them, went to the sheriff’s sale, purchased the property, and left it in possession of Harrington and his wife, to be by them used for their benefit, until, if possible, they could pay him for it, and further pay to him the amount of a debt they owed to him, and soon after Bronson took from Harrington a lease of the land. So far as appears, there was no intention on part of either to defraud anybody. It was simply the effort of a kind-hearted man to aid an embarrassed and sorely pressed debtor. Harrington and wife, after the sale, conducted the farm and store the same as before the sale. But, thereafter, the work done on the farm was done in the name of Mrs. Harrington as agent for Bronson, and the store was carried on in the same way; all this with Bronson’s full knowledge and consent, although the en
Clearly, as to all persons dealing or bargaining with Mrs. Harrington as agent, to whom the nature of the arrangement was not known, Bronson was answerable as principal. To those who knew that he was only nominally principal, and that the business was really Mrs. Harrington’s, conducted for the benefit of herself and her husband’s creditors, Bronson was not answerable. George W. Harrington, the son, this plaintiff, had been at home with his parents from 1879, the date of the sheriff’s sale, until October, 1885, at which date he came of age. He had married the month before. He says, some time in October of this year: “ I told my mother that I had got married, and that I was going to leave and work for myself, and she told me that if I would stay there and work they would give me the Decker farm, .... and if they didn’t give me the Decker farm, Mr. Bronson would have to pay me for my work, for she was his agent, and I stayed and worked.”
He claimed that under this contract he remained with his wife upon the farm, working as a farm hand, she doing such service in the farm house and dairy as was required of a farmer’s wife ; that this continued for three or four years; that he had not been paid for his services ; further, that these services were rendered to Bronson, for whom his mother was agent. Therefore he brought suit against Bronson, and from a judgment in his favor defendant brings this appeal.
There are eleven assignments of error to the rulings of the court in the charge to the jury and answers to points. These may here, for purposes of consideration and review, be condensed into three, as follows : (1) There was no evidence sufficient to establish the relation of principal and agent between Bronson and the mother. (2) The evidence was not sufficient to establish either an express or implied promise on part of Bronson to pay plaintiff for his services. (3) The uncontroverted evidence established that plaintiff knew the real relation between his mother and defendant, and therefore the mother alone was answerable for the value of his labor.
As to the first specification of error, the testimony of Bronson himself, as to the real arrangement between him and the Harringtons, was ample to sustain the finding of the jury that
That a third party may, at an open judicial sale, purchase the personal property of an insolvent debtor, and leave it in possession of the debtor to be used by him on such terms as suits the purchaser, so long as there is no secret transfer of title, we have frequently decided. There is no possible wrong done to creditors in such a transaction. The character of the sale by which the title passes is so open and notorious that no doubt can exist subsequently as to the ownership, and no creditor can be deceived by giving credit on the faith of a possession of chattels in one not the owner; and as the purchaser presumably pays the value of the property, and this value goes in cash to the execution creditor, the latter is not wronged. There is no rule of law nor of public policj’- which prohibits a man from being openly and honestly benevolent to an unfortunate debtor; nor is there any such rule which imputes to real benevolence legal fraud. Maynes v. Atwater, 88 Pa. 498; Stoddart v. Price, 143 Pa. 537. There was said by the court below nothing contrary to this view, that we can discover.
So, while the transaction -here is tainted with no illegality,
As to the third specification, while there is very much in the evidence to induce belief that it is well founded, we cannot say, in holding both court and jury to the performance of their proper functions, there was error in not giving binding instructions for defendant. The real terms of the arrangement, between plaintiff’s mother and Bronson, were, under the evidence, clearly established. The only interest or expectation of benefit by Bronson was the payment of his debt. That Harrington and his wife might conduct the business without molestation from creditors, earn a living and pay their debts, he permitted himself to be held out as principal. This plaintiff, the son, lived in the house with his parents for years after the sheriff’s sale, and until he was of age, at which time the alleged contract was made. His situation and connection with the parties were such as to render knowledge on his part of the real business relation between them and defendant highly probable. The facts that plaintiff worked on for several years with no demand on Bronson for payment; that afterwards he became indebted to Bron
The point made by appellant’s counsel, that it was the duty of plaintiff to inquire into the extent of the agent’s authority, has no application to the facts of this case. There was no anomalous or extraordinary assertion of power here, to put the party dealing with the agent on inquiry. It was ostensibly only the ordinary contract of hiring labor nec&ssary for conducting the farming operations of defendant on the farm supervised by the agent. As, apparently, the benefits of plaintiff’s labor would inure to the advantage of the principal, there was no duty of further inquiry imposed on plaintiff.
The statement of plaintiff, under the act of 1887, sufficiently sets out the cause of action, and specifies with sufficient preciseness the particular items of plaintiff’s demand. It is a “ concise ” statement, as provided by the act of 1806. That the evidence, besides supporting the contract of hiring at the date averred by the agent, went further, and tended to show that the mother agreed, if she did not pay him with the Decker farm, Bronson would pay him, in no manner affects the character of the contract substantially averred. Every particular that defendant, to prevent a recovery, should have denied, was clearly set out; as the evidence showed no essentially different contract, it is sufficient to sustain the judgment.
As to the eleventh assignment, embracing the alleged error in rejecting testimony of declarations by the mother in denial of her agency, she having died before trial, the ruling was correct. They were not made at the time the contract was entered into, nor made to plaintiff at any time, nor in his presence; were by one not a party to the issue, and who had no interest in it; they were clearly inadmissible.