48 A. 429 | Conn. | 1901
The cause of abatement alleged in the plea of the defendant corporation is defective service, and the particular cause is thus stated: Said writ was not otherwise served on the defendant corporation than by leaving a copy of the same with said defendant's secretary on the 24th day of April, 1899, and "six weeks and one day, instead of six weeks, before the first Tuesday of June, 1899, to which said writ was made returnable." There is no other allegation.
Under the statute applicable to this case, service could legally be made more than six weeks before the return day, if that return day were the one next after the date of service to which the writ could be made returnable. Public Acts of 1895, p. 547; id. 1897, p. 896; Hill v. Buechler,
It may be that the plea is bad in substance, and that the demurrer should be sustained even if the exceptions to defects in form were not well taken, but we do not consider these questions.
If the court erred in ordering certain paragraphs in the answer to be expunged, no harm was done by it. The complaint is sufficient in substance. As there was no demurrer, the question of defect in form cannot be raised on this appeal.
The exceptions to the conduct of the trial by the court are not well taken. The question asked the witness Morse was properly excluded. The evidence called for was hearsay, and came within no one of the exceptions to the rule excluding such evidence.
The trial court found these facts: 1. The sale of the rugs to the plaintiffs was made by Payne, acting as agent of the defendant corporation, and acting within the apparent scope of his authority. 2. The plaintiffs made an absolute purchase of said rugs from said Payne, in entire good faith, believing him to have the authority to make the sale, and was not chargeable in the circumstances with any neglect to make special inquiry *564 as to the right of Payne to sell the rugs for the price paid. 3. The plaintiffs had a meritorious and sufficient defense to said action for conversion.
No claim is made that the court erred in rendering, upon these facts in connection with other facts admitted and found for the plaintiffs, the judgment appealed from. The court has found in detail the subordinate facts from which said conclusions of fact were drawn; and the defendant's claim is that these subordinate facts are insufficient in law to support the conclusions of the court. Such conclusions are reviewable; but we think that the claim as here made does not call for discussion. The record does not show that the conclusions of fact were necessarily influenced by the adoption of any erroneous rule of law, and the claim that the subordinate facts found, or any of them, are logically and necessarily inconsistent with the ultimate conclusions, is not tenable.
The court did not err in overruling the claims of law made by the defendants on the trial. It was not necessary for the plaintiffs to show that "demand was made on the defendants before suit was brought to reopen the judgment given by said justice of the peace." The circumstances of the case appearing in the finding did not, by necessary operation of law, cast a duty upon the plaintiffs to make inquiry as to the agent's authority to sell at the price asked. There is no occasion to correct the finding.
It appears from the whole record that the plaintiffs' property interest in the original contention was $1.40, and that of the defendant corporation was $5, and that the plaintiffs and defendant were both at fault and acting against their real interests in pressing this action to trial. Parties should remember that persistent litigation, where no substantial rights are involved, is an abuse of the facilities furnished by the State in the administration of justice.
There is no error in the judgment of the Court of Common Pleas.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.