225 Pa. 200 | Pa. | 1909
Opinion by
A nonsuit was directed in this case in the court below, and the appeal is from the refusal of the court to take it off. The facts briefly are these. In the latter part of 1899 the plaintiff advanced to the defendant $6,265 to be employed by the latter in the purchase of stock in the National Electric Company. The stock was purchased accordingly in defendant’s name. Later on plaintiff received from defendant this acknowledgment in writing signed by the defendant: “Philadelphia, Sept., 14,1899. Due to Lizzie Rosenblatt Sixty two hundred and sixty-five dollars, which was to be used to purchase 400 shares of National Electric Company stock and pay assessments on same. I agree to divide profits, if any, on same, and in case of any loss, I will assume all myself.” Shortly thereafter, with the consent of both parties, the stock so transferred was exchanged for its equivalent in the stock and bonds of another company into which the National Electric Company had been merged. On December 19, following, the defendant, at the request of the plaintiff, transferred the substituted stock and bonds to the latter’s husband, here the use plaintiff. The second day following the transfer plaintiff said to defendant that he “wanted the partnership dissolved or ended.” Suit was brought December 10,1906, to charge defendant with the difference between the original investment and the market value of the stock and bonds on the day when the use plaintiff expressed his desire to end the partnership, this difference as shown by the stock exchange quotations being $2,359. The plaintiff did not sell the stock and bonds, but, so far as appears, still held them at the time of bringing the action. Their present value does not appear. Plaintiff’s contention is that the contract was one of partnership; that the term of continuance being undefined, it was determinable at the pleasure of either party; that it being for a single transaction, and the amount due the withdrawing party being definitely ascertained, no accounting was required, and that therefore a right of action accrued immediately upon dissolution to the one withdrawing. That all this would follow were the contract one of partnership pure and simple may be conceded. In
Judgment affirmed.