Glendale Lumber Co. v. Beekman Lumber Co.

• Decision Date: 03 January 1911
• Citation: 133 S.W. 384,152 Mo. App. 386
• Parties: GLENDALE LUMBER CO. v. BEEKMAN LUMBER CO.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

133 S.W. 384

152 Mo. A. 386

GLENDALE LUMBER CO. v. BEEKMAN LUMBER CO.

Springfield Court of Appeals. Missouri.

January 3, 1911.

1. PLEADING (§ 226)—DEMURRERS—RULINGS.

Where the court rendered judgment against plaintiff on his refusal to plead further, notwithstanding his amended petition, filed after the sustaining of a demurrer to the original petition, the court in effect determined that the amended petition did not state a cause of action.

2. CORPORATIONS (§ 515)—RIGHT TO SUE— OBJECTIONS.

The objection that a corporation suing as an assignee of a claim for legal services has no right under its charter to purchase and hold the claim cannot be raised by demurrer to the petition, but must be specially pleaded.

3. PLEADING (§ 193)—DEMURRER—GROUNDS —WANT OF JURISDICTION.

It is good ground of demurrer to a petition that it shows that the court is without jurisdiction.

4. CORPORATIONS (§ 513)—ACTIONS—JURISDICTION—PLEADING.

Under Rev. St. 1909, § 1754, providing that a suit against a corporation must be commenced either in the county where the cause of action accrued or in any county where the corporation keeps an office or an agent, a petition, in an action in the circuit court of a county against a corporation, which alleges that the cause of action accrued in the county, and that all the contracts, negotiations, and transactions relied on were conducted in the county, shows that the circuit court has jurisdiction of the suit.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; George H. Williams, Judge.

Action by the Glendale Lumber Company against the Beekman Lumber Company. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Hattie Greensfelder, for appellant. W. H. Biggs and Davis Biggs, for respondent.

GRAY, J.

The parties to this suit are corporations, organized under the laws of this state. The plaintiff's cause of action is based on an account assigned to it by one John B. Christensen. The petition alleges that the defendant corporation became indebted to Christensen, an attorney at law, for legal services rendered at the request of the defendant, in the sum of $500, and that said Christensen, for value received, assigned, transferred, and sold the account to the plaintiff, and that the same is due and unpaid. The petition further alleges that at all times mentioned therein the defendant maintained its principal office in Jackson county, Mo. This suit was instituted in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, and the summons was issued to the sheriff of Jackson county, and was returned by him, duly served, and the cause came on for hearing at the February term, 1910. The defendant appeared and filed the following demurrer: "Comes now the defendant and appearing specially and solely for the purpose of filing this demurrer, and for no other purposes, demurs to the petition of the plaintiff herein, on the ground that said petition (1) fails to disclose facts sufficient to confer jurisdiction upon this defendant, and (2) does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action." The demurrer was sustained on February 15, 1910. At the time the demurrer was filed and passed on, the petition contained the following allegation as to where the cause of action accrued: "That the cause of action herein stated accrued at and in the city of St. Louis, Mo." After the demurrer had been passed on, the court granted plaintiff permission to amend its petition by interlineation, and the clause just quoted was amended to read as follows: "That the cause of action herein stated accrued, and all of the contracts, negotiations, and transactions hereinafter described, were made, conducted, and accrued at and in...