37 Pa. Super. 607 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1908
Opinion by
The plaintiff brought this action to recover of the defendant for medical attendance and filed a statement showing the exact number and dates of visits and the charge for each visit. The defendant filed an affidavit of defense averring, among other things, that during a part of the period for which the charges were made her husband was living, and that the services were rendered at his request and upon his account; and that on no occasion did the plaintiff make more than two visits a day. The plaintiff took a rule for judgment for that part of the claim to which the affidavit of defense was insufficient. The court below held the affidavit of defense to be sufficient as to the charges for services rendered during the lifetime of the husband and as to all charges for over two visits a day, and as to the balance of the claim held the affidavit of. defense to be insufficient and entered judgment in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $373. The defendant appeals.
It is not necessary to quote the affidavit of defense at length, for the two questions which it presents for consideration are fairly stated in the brief presented by the counsel of appellant. “1. Is the averment that the charges are excessive, and the accounts are padded, followed by the allegation that the appellant is unable to specify the exact number of visits made, sufficient to prevent judgment being rendered against the appellant for any sum? 2. Did the affidavit aver sufficient facts to entitle the defendant to set off against the claim of the plaintiff a debt due from the plaintiff to Samuel L. Mc-Fetridge, a son of the defendant?”
An.affidavit of defensé should set forth fully and fairly, facts sufficient to show prima facie a good defense, and if it fails to do so, either from omission of essential facts, or manifest evasion in the mode of statement, it will be insufficient to prevent judgment. The affidavit in the present case admitted
The allegation of a set-off was wholly insufficient. The affidavit averred, in substance, that the plaintiff and Samuel L. McFetridge, the son of the defendant, had, in March, 1904, agreed that any amount due the plaintiff for attendance upon the defendant, should be subject to the set-off of any indebtedness of the plaintiff to Samuel L. McFetridge, “who was associated with the plaintiff in a business known as the American Gas Heated Iron, in which there was to be advanced by the said Samuel L. McFetridge, sufficient capital to exploit an invention for a gas heated iron, without calling upon the plaintiff for any contribution. As a result of this agreement entered into between the plaintiff and the son of the defendant, there is due the said, son the sum of $957.82.” It is not necessary to consider the question whether this defendant
The judgment is affirmed.