59 W. Va. 46 | W. Va. | 1906
This is an action of asswnpsit brought by the Loyerin & Browne Co., a corporation, against J. H. Bumgarner in the circuit court of Wirt county upon two guaranties in writing, the first-in the following words:
'“For the purpose of enabling H. Bumgarner to purchase*48 goods upon credit from Loverin & Browne Co., of Chicago, I hereby guarantee that said H. Bumgarner shall promptly pay them for all goods which they may hereafter sell to him upon credit until this guarantee is revoked. Said payment to be made within ten (10) days after receiving goods, my liability hereinunder shall cover any balance to become due not exceeding Five Hundred Dollars. Goods ordered under this Guarantee may be returned within 10 days after receiving same at invoice price if goods are returned in good order properly packed. Dated, Elizabeth, W. Va. July 11th, 1903. Signed, J. H. Bumgarner, (Seal).”
The second, without date, but made in August as appears from the record, is in addition to the former, and is as follows : ‘ ‘For the purpose of enabling Harry Bumgarner to purchase goods upon credit from Loverin & Browne Co., of Chicago, we or I hereby guarantee that said Harry Bumgarner shall promptly pay them for all goods which they may hereafter sell to him upon credit until this guarantee is revoked. Said payment to be made within 10 days after receiving goods, we or my liability hereinunder shall cover any balance to become due not exceeding One Thousand Dollars. Goods ordered under this guarantee may be returned within 10 days after receiving same at vrwoice prices if freight charges are paid and goods returned in good order properly packed. Signed, J. H. Bumgarner, (Seal).”
Plaintiff filed with its declaration a bill of particulars showing that it had sold in all under said guaranties to Harry Bumgarner goods to the amount of $2,001.97 and had been paid by said Bumgarner $1,312.46, leaving a balance due as claimed of $681.51, which bill of particulars was duly sworn to and the defendant notified that the plaintiff would rely upon the said stated account as its bill of particulars upon the trial of the action.
The defendant filed his counter affidavit that he believed there was no sum due from him to the plaintiff upon said demands stated in plaintiff’s declaration and entered his plea of non-assumpsit. The defendant also tendered his special plea that the plaintiff ought not to have or maintain his said action against him, because he says that the contract which the plaintiff was seeking to enforce against him was one in which the defendant was a guarantor for Harry Bumgarner who
On the 8th of February, 1905, a jury was sworn in the case and not being able to agree upon a verdict were discharged. On the 10th of May, 1905, another jury was em-panelled and sworn, and after hearing all the evidence and the arguments of counsel and the instructions of the court returned a verdict for the plaintiff assessing the damages at $630.99. The defendant then moved the court to set aside the verdict and grant him a new trial on the ground that the verdict was contrary to the law and the evidence, which motion was overruled by the court and judgment entered upon said verdict.
The first cause of error assigned is in overruling the motion of defendant to set aside the verdict of the jury and grant him a new trial. This assignment will be disposed of in connection with other assignments hereinafter treated relative to the admission of testimony objected to by the defendant.
The second assignment is that the court erred in giving to the jury Instructions Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 asked for by the plaintiff and set out in bill of exceptions No. 5; and the third ■ assignment in refusing to give to the jury defendant’s instruction No. 2 as set out in bill of exceptions No. 6. These instructions involve the character and effect of the two written guaranties made by the defendant J. H. Bumgarner and filed with the plaintiff’s declaration. The plaintiff’s instructions as set out in bill of exceptions No. 5 are to the effect that if the jury should believe from the evidence that the defendant signed and executed to the plaintiff the guarantee •contracts sued upon and shown in evidence, and that upon the faith of such guarantees Harry Bumgarner or H. Bum-garner obtained the goods sued for from plaintiff and did not pay for some of the same within ten days thereafter as provided for in said contracts, then the defendant became at once liable to pay for the said goods up to the limit of his guarantee contracts and plaintiff was not bound to first pursue the principal before instituting this suit on said guarantee contracts and should find for the plaintiff the value of all such goods as they should find from the evidence had not been paid for by the principal within such limits. These instructions are given on the theory that the guaranties sued upon are unconditional guaranties for the payment of the money for Harry Bumgarner within ten days after the delivery of the goods to said Harry Bumgarner on the default •or failure of the principal to pay the same. Harry Bumgar-ner was the infant son of the defendant, J. IT. Bumgarner, who was anxious to start him in business and for that purpose made the guaranties sued upon in this case. The goods furnished to Harry Bumgarner under these guaranties were
The defendant to maintain his proposition that the guaranties sued upon were the ordinary collateral and secondary guaranties of pajunent, only after plaintiff’s remedy against the principal should be exhausted, relies upon the case of Building & Loan Association v. Engle, 45 W. Va. 588, and Kearns v. Montgomery, 4 W. Va. 29. In the 45th W. Va. case the guaranty was upon a loan of $800 from the Loan Association to Frank Engle to secure which Engle had executed a mortgage on certain property and had given bond, and the guaranty was, “the payment of said sum of eight hundred dollars by the said Engle to the said company, on the terms and in the manner set out in said bond and mortgage.” The bond and mortgage were according to the forms and terms peculiar to building and loan association contracts and the guaranty could only mean that in case the mortgaged property failed to pay the debt, in case it had to be resorted to, and further that the bond of Engle should prove insufficient, to supplement it by the payment of any balance remaining unpaid after exhausting the mortgaged property, the guarantors would then be liable, their guaranty not being for the payment of money absolutely at or within a specified time, but “on the terms and in the manner set out in said bond and mortgage,” so that it was clearly the intention of the parties that they should exhaust not only the mortgage but pursue the bond, when the guarantors would be liable for any deficiency after the mortgage and bond were proven insufficient. In case of Kearns v. Montgomery, as stated by the Court at page 40, “Whether the defendant is guarantor or maker, depends on the understanding of the parties. * * * * * * * if a stranger endorse his name in blank on the back of paper not negotiable, he is prima facie guarantor, but this presumption may be rebutted by showing the original understanding of the parties, by showing an express agreement otherwise, or by showing circumstances from which one may be inferred.” Brandt on Suretyship, section 116, page 256, says: “When the terms of a guaranty of payment fix the time within which the payment shall be made, if the payment is not made within the time prescribed there is a breach of the guaranty, and no steps need be taken against the princi
It seems unnecessary to cite further authorities upon this proposition. That the defendant’s guaranties in this case are absolute and unconditional, from the circumstances of the case and the authorities, is unquestionable. This being so, the instructions asked by the plaintiff and given by the court were properly given; and, because this is so and the instruction asked for by the defendant and refused by the court, being based upon the opposite theory that the guaranties were conditional and required the principal to be pursued to insolvency, the same was properly refused.
Bills of exceptions Nos. 1, 2 and 3 go to the rulings of the court in admitting certain testimony over the objection of the defendant. The first objection is an objection to the reading of the deposition of Arthur Coon taken in Chicago on the 5th day of April, 1905, first, because of the insufficiency of the notice and the service thereof. The notice seems to be very full as to when and where the same should be taken and ample time given, the notice was served by a deputy sheriff of Wirt county by delivering a copy of the same “into the hands of J. II. Bumgarner in Wirt County, W. Ya., March 20th,
“Elizabeth, W. Va., Oct. 17, 1903. Loverin Browne Co. Hear Sirs: — I rec. your letter stating that Harry Bumgarner had sent $300 to be credited on his a-c, when I had sent him my check for $400, which was to be sent to you. It does seem to me that he either spends all the money he gets for .goods or keeps it & if he is not reducing his a-c I don’t want .you to send him any more goods on my a-c so send me a statement of all the money he has ever sent you since he commenced business with you & in the mean time don’t send him any more goods on my Bond urvbill you hear from me.”
This letter is in answer to the letter of plaintiff informing him of the receipt of $300 from Harry Bumgarner. It will be seen that in the postscript of defendant’s letter of October 15th he had mentioned sending a check to Harry Bum-garner for $400, when he finds that he had paid over to plaintiff only $300 of the $400 sent to him by the defendant be is inclined to not further guaranty payment for him. Witness •stated that on the 20th of October, 1903, plaintiff wrote a letter to defendant in reply to his letter of October 15th enclosing the freight bill for $2.25 and his letter of October lYth countermanding his guaranty of Harry Bumgarner, which would take effect of that date and enclosing statement
“Your letter of the 26th Bee. & in reply — Well you can let Harry Bumgarner have the goods shipped to Helsonville, $375, on my bond and in the mean time urge him to send his collections as fast as he can. I want to do all I can for the boys, but don’t want him to get to far behind, there is one thing about Harry, he is thorley honest, but he let a lot of his workers get away with him & has been reckless with his monej'-, but has lots of business about him & any advice you will give him to hold him down will be highly apreciated by me.”
Upon receipt of said letter plaintiff mailed the bill of lad
On the 13th of November plaintiff wrote defendant, among other things as follows: “We have your letter of Nov. 9th and note what you say about standing good for future shipments made to Harry Bumgarner to the amount of $800.00 and we will be governed accordingly. We enclose statement of his account to date, showing balance due $859.72. This will be reduced somewhat by goods returned. We have also
On November 12th, defendant wrote plaintiff: “I just reed, a letter from Harry Bumgarner stating that Mr. Clarke would make the orders for goods in the future and he would work for him and that he would not want to ship any more goods on my bond until further orders.” On the 14th of November plaintiff wrote defendant: “We have your letter of November 12th, countermanding guaranty given for account of Harry Bumgarner, and we will not ship any more, goods under your guarantee until further instructions from you. We wrote you yesterday, sending statement of balance due on his account, which we trust will be settled up as soon as possible. ” On the 10th of December, plaintiff wrote defendant: “As guarantor for the account of Harry Bumgarner, we hand you herewith statement of his account to date, showing-balance due $689.51. This account has been running some time and as we do not see any prospects of getting it out of Harry Bumgarner we shall have to ask you to settle same. Kindly send hs draft by return mail to balance, and oblige.”
This is the amount of plaintiff’s claim as shown by its bill of particulars filed with its declaration which is an itemized statement of all the shipments made to Harry Bumgarner as well as all payments made by him during the whole time of their dealings, showing goods shipped in all to amount of $2,001.97 and credits to the amount of $1,312.46, leaving balance due plaintiff said sum of $689.51, which account was proved by the deposition of Arthur Coon, bookkeeper of plaintiff, as true and correct and showing the true balance unpaid.
A notice hereinbefore mentioned given by plaintiff to defendant to produce certain letters written by plaintiff to defendant named specifically letters dated Sept. 23rd, Oct. 6th, Oct. 8th, Oct. 15th, Oct. 20th, Oct. 22nd, Oct. 26th, Nov. 6th, Nov. 9th, Nov. 13th, Nov. 14th, Dec. 10th, and Dec. 30th, 1903, respectively. The correspondence between plaintiff and defendant introduced in evidence with the deposition of Arthur Coon, shows the letters of defendant in reply to letters of plaintiff asking and receiving statements of account of his son, Harry Bumgarner, all the time acknowledging his
In defendant’s letter of October 28th to plaintiff in reply to plaintiff’s letter of two days before informing him that it
Defendant J. H. Bumgarner was present in person at the trial and was placed upon the witness stand by plaintiff for the purpose of showing and did prove that his principal, Harry Bumgarner, had become insane and was an inmate of an hospital for the insane; and also for the purpose of accounting for papers supposed to be in Iris possession relating to this case which he obtained from Harry Bumgarner. He admitted to having a large bundle of papers in the courthouse at the term of court before that relating to the case but stated that he had turned them over to his attorney, Mr. Cas-to. Pie gave no testimony in relation to the correspondence between either himself and the plaintiff or between Harry Bumgarner and plaintiff. While the fact that defendant was present in person at the trial and did not as a witness for himself deny the authenticity of the letters purporting to be signed by him nor the fact that he had received the letters of the plaintiff put in evidence may not be conclusive of anything, it strengthens the presumption that the letters were received and sent by him as shown. Railroad Co. v. Roberts, 10 Col. App. 87-91. The defendant offered no evidence in the case. In addition to the evidence of Arthur Coon, who proves the account of plaintiff, J. G. Clarke, a witness for plaintiff, testified that he was with Harry Bumgarner, saw the orders and helped to deliver the goods, went with him on
During the trial the defendant demanded the production of the plaintiff’s books of original entry and excepted to the ruling of the court in overruling his motion. The production of the books at the time they were so demanded would have
For the reasons stated there is no reversible error in the judgment of the circuit court and the same is affirmed.
Affirmed.