Jacques v. Edgell

• Decision Date: 31 March 1867
• Citation: 40 Mo. 76
• Parties: THOMAS C. JACQUES, JONATHAN S. JACQUES, JOHN WATERS, JOHN W. HUGHES, JOHN SHANKLIN, AND OSBORN REILY, Plaintiffs in Error, v. STEPHEN M. EDGELL AND ALEXANDER C. ANDERSON, Defendants in Error.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

40 Mo. 76

THOMAS C. JACQUES, JONATHAN S. JACQUES, JOHN WATERS, JOHN W. HUGHES, JOHN SHANKLIN, AND OSBORN REILY, Plaintiffs in Error,

v.STEPHEN M. EDGELL AND ALEXANDER C. ANDERSON, Defendants in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1867.

Error to St. Louis Court of Common Pleas.

Sharp & Broadhead, for plaintiffs in error.

Geo. P. Strong, for defendants in error.

WAGNER, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a suit instituted by the plaintiffs in error against the defendants to recover the profits on certain drafts drawn on New York and sold in St. Louis at a premium by the defendants, the said drafts having been purchased in New Orleans with money arising from the proceeds of a lot of pork belonging to plaintiffs and sold by the agents of defendants in New Orleans.

The petition sets out that on the 31st of September, 1860, defendants agreed with plaintiffs to sell for them at St. Louis, Keokuk, or New Orleans, the product of 2,200 hogs then packed and in the hands of Clegham, Batly & Alexander of Keokuk, upon which defendants agreed to advance to plaintiffs $10,000-to charge plaintiffs ten per cent. interest on the money advanced and two and a half per cent. commission for selling; the said property to be insured for the defendants at the expense of the plaintiffs till shipped, and to be insured when shipped by the defendants; that the $10,000 was advanced to plaintiffs by defendants; that the property was received by defendants and forwarded to New Orleans, where the pork was sold by defendants for $29,361.51, and the money received by them for plaintiffs; that the plaintiffs have paid back to the defendants the $10,000 advanced together with the ten per cent. interest thereon, and the two and a half per cent. commission for selling and the insurance. The petition further avers, that with the money arising from the proceeds of the sale of the pork the defendants purchased at New Orleans certain drafts on New York at a discount and afterwards sold them at St. Louis at a premium; that defendants realized on said drafts the sum of $2,209, for which they failed to account, and for which amount plaintiffs prayed judgment. To this petition the court sustained a demurrer, and rendered final judgment thereon, and the plaintiffs sued out their writ of error.

There is but one point and that is, whether the defendants were bound as agents of the plaintiffs to account for the proceeds of the drafts received for the sale of plaintiffs'...