25 Ind. 328 | Ind. | 1865
Complaint for work and labor performed. The “bill of particulars filed with the complaint is as follows: ■ “ To services in the United States army, which were credited ■to Tobin township, at the request of said Reynolds, and payment of which was promised by said Reynolds, §360.” Answei’, general denial. Trial by the court. Finding for the appellee. Motion for a new trial overruled, and judgment on the finding of the court for $250.^
The error assigned is that “ the finding and judgment of the court are contrary to the law, and to the evidence given on the trial.”
The evidence shows that Reynolds was appointed treasurer of an association of the citizens of Tobin township, jPerry county, to raise money to clear the township of the • draft. Nugent and others had signed a recruiting roll, and by the contract with the recruiting officer were to be credited to Tobin township on the muster-in roll, and were each to receive $100 bounty out of the money raised by said township. The plaintiff states, “"We left here as the recruits of Tobin township, going,to Jeffersonville to be mustered in.” It was necessary for the recruits to go to Jeffersonville to be
It is urged, on behalf of-the appellant, that the promise of Reynolds to pay $350 was void for want of consideration. This position, in our judgment, is correct,. The contract was already complete and perfect. Nugent had, as he states,' agreed to enter the military service of the United States and have the credit given to Tobin township, upon the promisethatheshouldbepaidthesumof $100. Thatpromise was binding upon both parties. The one promise was * a sufficient consideration for the other. He now claims that the appellant, to induce him to fulfill his legal obligation, promised to pay him an additional sum. There were]no new duties assumed by Nugent, but he claims that, in consequence of the promise by the appellant, he went forward and performed the contract he was already under legal obligation to comply with. If the appellant made the promise, it was without any adequate consideration, and cannot be enforced in law. 1 Parsons on Contracts, 5th ed., 437. That a promise to do what a person is bound
Nor does it add anything to the plaintiff’s claim in this case, that he attempts to establish a personal contract with the agent of those to whom he was already bound.j He knew of that agency, and therefore could only treat with him, so far as the subject matter of that contract was involved, in his capacity as agent. The plaintiff well knew
Upon the evidence in this case, there can be no recovery against thé defendant. The new trial should have been granted.
The judgment is reversed, with costs, and the cause remanded.