10 S.D. 171 | S.D. | 1897
This is an action to establish the liability of the defendants Kittredge and Edmison, as sureties on a bond given to secure the plaintiff, an insurance company, against all loss occasioned by,the failure of its agents, a co-partnership engaged in the insurance business under the firm name of Holt & Place, to pay over to the company monthly, or of tener, if demanded, all moneys received on account of the business transacted by said agents. Judgment tor $204.20, together with interest an'd costs, was demanded, and this appeal is by the plaintiff from a judgment in its favor and against the defendants Kittredge and Edmison for 183.94, and from an order overruling a motion for a new trial.
As alleged in the complaint, shown by the evidence, and found by the court before whom the case was tried without a jury the defendants. Holt & Place were co-partners, jointly acting as the local agents of plaintiff and certain other companies from the 31st day of December, 1892, until the 31st day of January, 1894, when a dissolution of the co-partnership was effected by the retirement of Mr. Place, whose pecuniary interest in the insurance business at that time ceased. The defendant Holt testified in plaintiff’s behalf, and in response to a question propounded by its counsel, that at the time of the dissolution of the partnership of Holt & Place the business of the firm was wound up, so far as the plaintiff insurance company was concerned; and, being called upon to explain his'answer, the witness further stated: “That Mr. Place had sold his interest in the insurance companies, and that there had been a letter written to each and every company in our agency, asking them to transfer the agency to Holt, Walts & Rodgers. Mr. Place’s pecuniary interest in the profits of the insurance business-ceased on the 1st day of February.” During the month of