Hunter v. Whitehead

• Decision Date: 31 August 1868
• Citation: 42 Mo. 524
• Parties: JOHN HUNTER, Respondent, v. JAMES M. WHITEHEAD, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

42 Mo. 524

JOHN HUNTER, Respondent,

v.JAMES M. WHITEHEAD, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

August Term, 1868.

Appeal from Buchanan Circuit Court.

Ensworth, for appellant.

I. The contract alleged in the petition to have been made by the parties is denied by the answer. Therefore it must be by the plaintiff established by written evidence. (Wildbahn v. Roubidoux, 11 Mo. 660, 661, and cases cited therein; Claywater v. Tetherow, 27 Mo. 241; Hammond's Adm'r v. Cadwallader, 29 Mo. 166; 5 Johns. Ch. 1.) The petition of plaintiff charges that the money arising from the sale exceeding the costs was held by defendant below in trust for himself and defendant, which is positively denied by defendant. If such a trust as that charged by the plaintiff could exist between the parties to this suit, it must be in writing, otherwise it is void; and it being denied by the defendant, the plaintiff must establish his right by legal testimony, and there is none legal in such cases except written. (See the above citations, also § 3 of statute of frauds and perjuries, Gen. Stat. 1865, p. 807.)

II. Transactions based on deceit and fraud are not encouraged by the aid of courts of chancery. (1 Mo. 12; 25 Mo. 166; 35 Mo. 409, and citations; 11 Serg. & R. 164; 19 Barb. 250; 26 id. 160, 163; 19 Wend. 293; 21 id. 171; Chitty on Cont. 680, and notes thereto; 2 Pet. 583; 4 id. 328.)

III. The court erred in refusing the plaintiff a trial by jury. This is a suit for the recovery of money had and received to the plaintiff's use, and is based upon contract, which is clearly a jury case. (Gen. Stat. 1865, p. 673, § 12; 5 Johns. 112, 14; 14 id. 304.)

Woodson, Vories & Vories, for appellant.

I. This case was not simply a proceeding to recover money or property, but was a proceeding to settle, adjust, and close up a partnership and reach a trust fund. If so, the court, and not a jury, was the proper and legally appointed tribunal to try it. (See sections of the practice act regulating trials, Gen. Stat. 1865, ch. 169, §§ 12, 13, p. 673.) The petition not only asked for a judgment for money, but asked that an account might be taken of all matters between said parties. (Conran v. Sellew, 28 Mo. 320; Morris v. Morris, 28 Mo. 117; Paul v. Chouteau et al., 14 Mo. 580.) The closing up of copartnerships, the adjustment of the accounts of the partners, as well as the ascertainment and enforcement of trusts, have always been subjects of equitable jurisdiction. If the respondent in this cause could, under the old system of practice, have filed his bill in chancery, and sustained it there upon the grounds embraced in this petition, the court committed no error in refusing appellant's motion and demand of a jury to try the cause.FAGG, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This suit, tried and determined in the Buchanan Circuit Court, was brought upon an alleged contract between the parties, by which a partnership was formed for the purpose of buying and selling again a certain tract of land described in respondent's petition. The finding and judgment of that court being in favor of the respondent, the cause was taken to the Fifth District Court, where there was an affirmance of the judgment, and it now comes here by appeal. The allegations of the petition charge the existence of the partnership, the purchase and resale of the land, with a statement of the amount of profit realized in the transaction by the appellant, and an account is asked to be taken between the parties and judgment rendered for the share of respondent, being the one-half of the said profit. To strip the answer of all matters not directly pertinent to the issues thus tendered by the petition, the real questions for determination related only to the existence of a partnership and the amount for which the appellant should account. The voluminous record in this case has been examined with much care, for the purpose of ascertaining whether any just cause exists for disturbing the finding of the Circuit Court upon these points. The allegations of the...