56 Neb. 596 | Neb. | 1898
During the course of erection under contract, the various stipulations and conditions of which we need not particularly notice of a court house for Washington county, Richards & Co., the contractors, had purchased of the Paxton &.Yierling Iron Works material, to be used in the performance of the work, and in the transaction
In error proceedings on .behalf of the plaintiff it is urged that the judgment is contrary to the rules of law applicable to and governable of the conditions and relative rights of the parties which arose from the transactions in question; also, that the only issuable matter in the controversy was that of the giving notice of the rejection of the order by the board. It is further argued in this connection that when it was determined by the trial judge, as it was in one finding, the notice was not given, the plaintiff became entitled to a judgment, as it had been settled by the overruling of the demurrer by one of the judges of the district in which the cause was pending that the excuse which plaintiff had pleaded for not .sooner taking an appeal from the action of the county board was forceful and sufficient, and this ruling could not be annulled or rendered ineffective by the different decision of the question by another judge of the same district, -at any subsequent stage of the proceedings. To what we deem a proper disposition of the controversy the decision on the demurrer, or the question of notice, is not a necessary element of discussion, and we need not further refer to it.
In relation to what matters were for trial in the district court it may be said that the record discloses that the plaintiff seems to have thought there were .others than he now asserts was the only one; for in a demand for special findings there were several questions of fact incorporated, one of which was “whether at the date of the execution and filing of -said order the defendant was indebted to Richards & Co.,” and to this the trial court gave a negative answer, on the ground that at the time of the order and the board’s action in respect thereto
“Omaha, Neb., May 15, 1891.
“To County Commissioners, Washington Co., Blair, Nebraska—Dear Sirs: Please pay to the order of George A. Hopkins the sum of $1,000 and deduct the same from tiie amount due on the contract.
“Yours, etc., Richards & Co.”
There were several other like assignments of or orders for payments of parts of any sum which might be due Richards & Co. to different persons; also one in favor of a bank,—all of which received at the hands of the county board similar treatment to th'at accorded the one in isuit. It also appeared that in an action by Richards & Co. against the county judgment had been rendered for the balance due the former, and in a suit by parties who had furnished material used in the erection of the court house and laborers in the construction thereof, for such purpose the amount of such judgment had been taken and by order of the court distributed. The order herein involved was but for a portion of the amount, if anything, then due Richards & Co. from the county, and, without the consent or acceptance of the latter, was invalid. This is on the ground that the creditor may not split up a single cause of action into many, thus subjecting the debtor to a multiplicity of suits, and to many complications, embarrassments, and responsibilities not within the purview of or contemplated in the original contract. (8 Am. & Eng. Ency. Law [2d ed.] pp. 1069, 1070; German Fire Ins. Co. v. Bullene, 51 Kan. 764, 83 Pac. Rep. 467; Welch v. Mayer, 36 Pac. Rep. [Colo.] 613; Snedden v. Doerffler, 39 Pac. Rep. [Colo.] 68.) This is the rule at law; and the reason for it which we
Affirmed,