Beard v. Parks

• Decision Date: 31 March 1869
• Citation: Beard v. Parks, 44 Mo. 244 (Mo. 1869)
• Parties: JAMES P. BEARD et al., Plaintiffs in Error, v. WILLIAM PARKS, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

44 Mo. 244

JAMES P. BEARD et al., Plaintiffs in Error,

v.WILLIAM PARKS, Defendant in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1869.

Error to Second District Court.

John L. Thomas, for plaintiffs in error.

Abner Green, for defendant in error.

CURRIER, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This suit originated in a justice's court, and is based on an account amounting to $23.60. An appeal was taken from the justice to the Circuit Court, where the case was tried de novo, and judgment rendered for the plaintiffs. The case was then taken to the Second District Court, where the judgment of the Circuit Court was reversed, on the ground that the record failed to show that “an account or statement of the cause of action” was filed either before the justice or in the Circuit Court.

The justice's transcript shows that the suit was upon an account for $23.60. Null, one of the plaintiffs, testified that the plaintiffs “did the work charged in the account sued on;” but the account itself does not appear in the record--the result, probably, of an error of the clerk. However this may be, no exceptions were taken in the Circuit Court to the absence of the account, or to any ruling of the court, grounded upon the supposed defect, and the matter, therefore, was not open to review in the appellate court. There is nothing to indicate any error in this respect on the part of the Circuit Court. (37 Mo. 578; 38 Mo. 357.)

Defendant's first instruction was erroneous, in that it made the case turn upon the isolated fact of the defendant's knowledge of the actual existence of the disputed partnership relation of the plaintiffs. If the plaintiffs were...