125 Wis. 134 | Wis. | 1905
The statute (sec. 4197, Stats. 1898) raises the irrebuttable presumption that the allegations are true whenever the pleadings allege “that the plaintiff or defendant or third persons were partners at any particular time.” The complaint in question alleges that the defendants were partners “at all the times hereinafter mentioned.” It then proceeds to mention a leasing on the 10th day of July, 1900, a taking possession by the defendants pursuant to said lease, and an occupation by them until twenty-eight months of rent had been earned. We cannot agree with the trial court that the only particular time at which partnership is alleged is July 10, 1900. That is the time alleged for the making of the lease, but the allegation of partnership is clearly not confined thereto, for it extends to all of the times thereafter mentioned. We think there can be no doubt that defendants were notified, by any reasonable construction of this complaint, that plaintiff claimed them to be associated in partnership from the 10 th day of July up to the time for which the rent was demanded. Pleadings are to be construed liberally in the interest of justice, and, in the absence of apparent evasion or misleading, should be deemed to allege all that of
The respondents urge, as an obstacle to this conclusion, that there is no finding of fact that Henke had any authority, .as a partner, to bind the firm to the making of a lease. The evidence is uncontradicted that the business involved was the editing and publishing of a local newspaper. We have no hesitation in holding that the leasing of premises in which to conduct it is within the general scope of such a business, and hence that there exists prima facie authority in a partner to bind the firm therefor. Stillman v. Harvey, 47 Cohn. 26; Seaman v. Ascherman, 57 Wis. 547, 15 N. W. 788. Besides this, however, it is established that the premises were occupied for the purposes of the business, and it is conceded that after about September 1st a partnership for the publication of said paper did exist.
Another contention against respondents’ liability is that the lease, a sealed instrument, was signed, not in the name •of the firm, but by Henke in his own name. The presence ■of a seal is immaterial, for it was wholly unnecessary. The lease, therefore, stands upon the same footing as any other
By ihe Oov/rt. — Judgment reversed, and cause remanded with directions to enter judgment in accordance with the prayer of the complaint.