Grandy v. Ferebee

• Decision Date: 31 January 1873
• Citation: 68 N.C. 356
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: TITUS T. GRANDY v. W. B. FEREBEE and EDWIN FEREBEE.

68 N.C. 356

TITUS T. GRANDY

v.W. B. FEREBEE and EDWIN FEREBEE.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

January Term, 1873.

The declarations and acts of a third person are not evidence against a party, unless such third person be his agent; and the agency must be established before such acts and declarations are admissible.

A receipt for money given by an alleged agent for a specific purpose is not admissible to prove the fact of agency. The agency being established prima facie by other evidence, to the satisfaction of the Court, such receipt becomes then proper evidence.

The depreciation of Confederate money is not between private parties, constructive notice to the agent and the person paying the same, that the principal will not receive it. Otherwise, where the receiving agent is an officer of the Court, or one acting in a fiduciary capacity.

( Monroe v. Stults, 9 Ired. 281; Williams v. Williamson, 6 Ired. 281, cited and approved.)

CIVIL ACTION, tried before Moore, J., at the August (Special) Term, 1872, of GRANVILLE Superior Court.

The plaintiff, at Spring Term, 1867, of the Superior Court of Law of Granville county, sued the defendants in DEBT upon their bond for $1,396.86, of date 1st January, 1858, and payable to plaintiff or bearer. At the return term of the writ, the defendants pleaded “payment and set off,” and the cause was continued and regularly transferred and docketed in the new Superior Court.

Upon the trial in the Court below, to sustain the plea of “payment,” (the execution and delivery of the bond being admitted,) the defendant, W. B. Ferebee, was examined and in substance testified that in July, 1863, he met with a brother of the plaintiff in Camden county, and asked him if they were taking Confederate money in Granville, the place where the plaintiff and this brother resided. Upon being informed that they were taking such money in that section, he mentioned that the plaintiff held his bond, (the one in suit); that he wished to pay it off, and asked the brother if he would take some money to the plaintiff for that purpose, that the plaintiff's brother consented to take the money, which in a few days afterwards was handed to him, Confederate and Virginia Treasury notes, together with a note on plaintiff for about $60, amounting in all to about $1,698. For this, the brother gave the following receipt, which was read to the jury, to-wit:

“July 24, 1863. Received of W. B. Ferebee for T. T. Grandy, sixteen hundred and ninety-eight dollars, in payment of a note of said Ferebee, held by T. T. Grandy.

+-------------------------+
                ¦(Signed,)¦W. S. GRANDY.” ¦
                +-------------------------+
                

This defendant further stated that he owed a bond to one Cyrus W. Grandy, a refugee from Norfolk, Va., but then residing in Granville, and at the time above stated, or the next day, handed W. S. Grandy, the plaintiff's brother, the money (Confederate) to take that up also, taking a similar receipt to the foregoing, which receipt was likewise read to the jury. That upon receiving this latter sum of money, the brother asked the defendant, if Cyrus W. Grandy should refuse to accept it, what must he do with it; and being informed by the brother, that he, himself, was funding his own surplus money in Confederate securities, this defendant told him to do the same with that handed him for Cyrus W. Grandy. This evidence of W. B. Ferebee was objected to by the plaintiff, but was received by the Court, and the plaintiff excepted.

W. B. Ferebee, the defendant, further testified that the brother, W. S. Grandy, did not have with him at the time his bond due the plaintiff; that Camden county at that time was debatable ground, sometimes in the possession of the U. S. forces, at others, occupied by the Confederate soldiers, and that people were not generally in the habit of carrying about with them their bonds for fear of being robbed. To this evidence the plaintiff again objected. Objection overruled, and exception by plaintiff.

Edwin Ferebee, the other defendant, being examined, stated that the plaintiff and his brother formerly lived in Camden county, the former removing to Granville in 1849, and the brother in 1859, engaging as partners in the mercantile business in Oxford. That after their removal, they both continued to own plantations in Camden, and slaves; and that one or the other of them, would from time to time, come to Camden, and when W. S. Grandy came, he generally attended to the business of his brother, the plaintiff; that he sometimes hired out plaintiff's slaves and rented his land, and received the hires and rents. That the bond sued on was taken by the brother in renewal of a former one held by plaintiff against the defendants, which original bond was in the custody of the brother, and by him surrendered at the time of renewal. That W. S. Grandy on one occasion, executed to this defendant a bond for a small amount, and signed the same, “T. T. Grandy, by W. S. Grandy,” and that the plaintiff afterwards paid it, which bond was produced and read to the jury. That the brother had also on another occasion paid the defendant an account for hats, blankets, &c., furnished to the slaves of the plaintiff. The plaintiff objected to the evidence of this witness, the defendant, Edwin Ferebee. Objection again overruled, and the plaintiff excepted.

In reply, the plaintiff, in substance, testified that he moved from the county of Camden to Oxford in 1849, and his brother in 1859; that each owned a plantation and negroes in Camden, and that after their removal one or the other of them would visit their former home once a year and attend to the renting, & c., of both; that if it was inconvenient for him, the plaintiff, to go, his brother would do so, and vice versa. That in July, 1863, his brother went to Camden on some business of his own, and upon his return brought to him a parcel of Confederate money, stating that W. B. Ferebee, the defendant, had requested him to bring it and pay off the bond which he, the plaintiff, held against him, (the one in suit,) and that he refused to receive the money; that his brother, W. S. Grandy, never collected or received payment of any bond for him, in any...