79 Wash. 390 | Wash. | 1914
Action upon a contract for an accounting. Judgment for defendants. Plaintiff appeals..
On the 24th day of January, 1898, one D. O. Troutman, in the name of his wife, the .plaintiff, entered into a contract in writing with defendant R. G. Polhill and one A. W. Jerry, wherein he agreed to, and did, advance to them the sum of $500, “as part grub-stake or outfit” for prospecting and mining in Alaska Territory. It was agreed that all finds
The record shows that Jerry presumably lost his life in Alaska, probably in 1898. He and Polhill went to Alaska in February, 1898. The record also shows that D. O. Trout-man disappeared in 1899. The heirs of Jerry, if he has any, are not parties to the action. The respondent Polhill did not know that the appellant advanced the money, or that she had any interest in the contract. The contract was made with her husband D. O. Troutman, who signed her name and acknowledged the contract' without disclosing that fact to either Polhill or Jerry. So far as appears from the record, the respondent did not know the appellant’s name had been signed to the contract until the commencement of this action. The respondent Polhill went to Alaska in February, 1898. He returned in October, 1899, bringing with him $713.02. He spent this money for an outfit, and returned to Alaska in the spring of 1900. He returned to Seattle in October, 1901, bringing with him $237.22. He spent this money, with money of his own, for machinery and provisions, and returned to Alaska the following spring, and came out of Alaska in the fall of 1903, sick and penniless. The appellant contends that she should have one-half of the money brought out in 1899 and 1901.
There is another reason why she cannot recover. The contract provides for a division “of all the proceeds derived from said venture,” and that wages earned should be treated as proceeds. Viewing the contract as an entirety, the word “proceeds” means net proceeds. Again, the contract is a continuing one and operates so long as Polhill was in the Alaska country. The net result of his prospecting and mining ventures in Alaska Territory is that, in the fall of 1903, he returned, as the court found, “without funds, sick with the scurvy, and greatly broken in health.” We think both views are so elementary that the citation of sustaining authority is unnecessary.
The judgment is affirmed.
Crow, C. J., Ellis, Main, and Chadwick, JJ., concur.