Files v. Reynolds

• Decision Date: 18 March 1899
• Citation: 50 S.W. 509
• Parties: FILES v. REYNOLDS.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

50 S.W. 509

FILES v. REYNOLDS.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

March 18, 1899.

Appeal from circuit court, Pulaski county. Second division; Jos. W. Martin, Judge.

Action by J. H. Reynolds against John M. Files and another. There was a judgment for plaintiff, and defendant A. W. Files appeals. Affirmed.

A. W. Files, pro se. John H. Hamiter, for appellee.

BATTLE, J.

J. H. Reynolds commenced an action against John M. Files and A. W. Files before a justice of the peace. The basis of the action was an account for books and money furnished J. M. Files while he was in the service of the Southwestern Publishing House, of Nashville, Tenn., amounting in the aggregate to the sum of $100.80, and a bond in the following words and figures:

"Know all men by these presents that I, the undersigned, do hereby agree and become responsible to the Southwestern Publishing House, of Nashville, Tenn., or their agent, J. H. Reynolds, at Little Rock, Ark., as parties of the first part, in the sum of five hundred ($500) dollars, under the following conditions, to wit:

"That Mr. John M. Files, party of the second part, shall act as canvassing and collecting agent for the said parties of the first part for the remainder of the year A. D. 1892, or so long as it may be mutually agreeable between the two parties.

"Contract as follows: We, the Southwestern Publishing House, or J. H. Reynolds, our agent, as parties of the first part, hereby agree to furnish the said John M. Files, party of the second part, with books to the amount of two hundred and fifty ($250) dollars, for the purpose of making deliveries in all and such towns and cities as they, the two parties, may mutually agree upon; and it is further agreed that we, as parties of the first part, do agree to furnish the said John M. Files, as party of the second part, with cash sufficient to pay traveling expenses and board bills for the first two weeks, after which he agrees to pay back said cash out of commissions allowed him on sales made for the said parties of the first part. [Signed] Southwestern Publishing House, per J. H. Reynolds, Agent. John M. Files. A. W. Files."

It was claimed that John M. and A. W. Files were bound by the bond for the payment of the account.

The plaintiff recovered a judgment in the justice's court, and A. W. Files appealed to the circuit court; and the plaintiff was again successful, recovering a judgment in the circuit court against A. W. Files for $15.80.

Files contends that the justice of the peace did not have jurisdiction of the subject-matter of this action, and that the circuit court acquired none by appeal. This contention is based upon the fact that the bond sued on was in the sum of $500. But the contention is not correct. At the time this action was commenced, John M. Files was not in the service of the Southwestern Publishing House, and all his liabilities under the bond had accrued. Hence, the right to recover a judgment for the penalty of the bond, "as a security for any demands that may be thereafter sustained by any further breach of any condition of such bond," had ceased to exist, and was not directly or indirectly involved in this action. The amount of the account sued on was only in controversy, and was within the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace. Probate Judge v. Dean, 52 Mich. 387, 18 N. W. 118.

Files further insists that the plaintiff had no right to maintain an...