Gillespie v. Beedy

• Decision Date: 19 April 1909
• Citation: 136 Mo. App. 550,118 S.W. 513
• Parties: GILLESPIE v. BEEDY et al.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

118 S.W. 513

136 Mo. App. 550

GILLESPIE v. BEEDY et al.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

April 19, 1909.

PARTNERSHIP (§ 56)—EVIDENCE.

Evidence held not to show that a defendant was a partner of codefendants, or that he held himself out to plaintiff to be such.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County; E. E. Porterfield, Judge.

Action by Sarah F. Gillespie against J. C. Beedy and others. Judgment for plaintiff, and the mentioned defendant appeals. Reversed.

W. W. Calvin and J. B. Hamner, for appellant. Frank Yeoman, for respondent.

BROADDUS, P. J.

This suit was instituted in a justice's court, where it was tried and judgment had, from which an appeal was taken to the circuit court, where it was tried anew, and plaintiff obtained judgment and defendant Beedy appealed to this court.

The plaintiff sues defendants as copartners. The plaintiff claims that on or about the 15th day of March, 1904, the defendants as such partners employed plaintiff as a mail carrier on the star route mail service from Myersville to South Pass City, Wyo.; that they owe plaintiff for service performed for the last 15 days of March, 1904, in the sum of $116.66, and 6 per cent. interest on the same for 2½ years; and that they are indebted to her in the further sum of $79.71, with interest, amounting to $11.85, for the full amount of the quarter's pay due one M. M. Gillespie for said mail service, an order for which had been duly assigned to her. The defendant Beedy, before the trial of the cause in the justice's court, filed an affidavit denying the existence of the alleged partnership.

It appears from the testimony that during the year 1903 Hansberger and Crenshaw, defendants, through their agent, E. C. McKinney, secured a contract with the government for the carrying of the mail from South Pass City to Myersville, Wyo. McKinney made a contract with M. M. Gillespie in their behalf, whereby the latter agreed to carry the mail over said route for the consideration of $700, quarterly payments, for his services. The said mail contract with the government was made in the name of McKinney, and the quarterly vouchers issued by the government were issued to McKinney, which were turned over by him to defendants Hansberger and Crenshaw, who cashed them under a power of attorney from McKinney.

Before assuming his duties under his contract, M. M. Gillespie was introduced by Beedy's codefendants to Beedy, who as agent for his daughter, Nellie A. Beedy, had money to lend. He borrowed from defendant Beedy $900, to secure the payment of which he executed a chattel mortgage upon certain personal property, which he used in connection with the business of carrying the mail, and a mortgage upon some real estate situate in Kansas City. In March, 1904, on account of domestic troubles, M. M. Gillespie ceased to carry the mails, and his wife, the plaintiff herein, undertook the service under a contract similar to that of her husband. When he left the service he assigned to her a portion of one quarter's pay then due,...