Jones v. Hardy

• Decision Date: 15 May 1900
• Citation: 127 Ala. 221,28 So. 564
• Parties: JONES v. HARDY ET AL.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

28 So. 564

127 Ala. 221

JONES v. HARDY ET AL.

Supreme Court of Alabama

May 15, 1900

Appeal from chancery court, Marengo county; Thomas H. Smith Chancellor.

Suit by Winston Jones against L. D. Hardy and others. From a decree in favor of defendants other than Hardy, complainant appeals. Affirmed.

The bill in this court was filed by the appellant, Winston Jones against the appellees, L. D. Hardy, Jacob Marx, Ed Marx August Schwarz, M. Ely, Fannie Marx, Moses Marx, and the First National Bank of Demopolis. It is averred in the bill that the complainant lived in Mobile, and was engaged in the business of a commission merchant there; that he owned certain plantations in Marengo county, Ala., and employed the defendant L. D. Hardy as overseer or manager of his plantations in Marengo county; that during that time said Hardy was employed as overseer, and notwithstanding it was agreed and understood between them that he should keep an accurate set of books, showing a true account of his transactions as such manager, he (Hardy) failed to keep correct books and accounts as such manager; that, during the time he was acting as overseer or manager of said plantations, he on several different occasions sold or disposed of cotton and other property belonging to the complainant to the parties who are made his co-defendants in the bill, and to other parties unknown to the complainant without the knowledge or consent of the complainant; that at different times the complainant furnished Hardy, as his agent and representative in the management of said plantations with sufficient goods, money, merchandise, and provisions to supply the demands of his plantations, and with which "to run said plantations"; that said Hardy disposed of the goods, money, and merchandise, etc., so delivered to him, collected the cotton and other crops produced on the plantations, converted the same to his own uses, and failed to keep a correct set of books, or to render a correct account to the complainant as such overseer or manager; that complainant at various times demanded an accounting of Hardy of the cotton and other crops raised by him on said plantations, but that Hardy failed and refused to surrender any account of his agency, or any account of the cotton received and disposed of by him; that the sales of the cotton and other crops by Hardy to his co-defendants in this suit were not entered on the plantation books, and, upon demand of the complainant for the books, Hardy delivered some of said books, but refused to deliver others to the complainant; that the disposal of the cotton and other crops and property by Hardy to his co-defendants in the present suit was without the knowledge, consent, direction, or authority of the complainant. The bill then averred as follows: "Orator avers that he has no means of establishing a full and correct account of money used by said Hardy, and of the goods and merchandise sold by him on said plantation, and of cotton and corn and other agricultural products from said plantation disposed of by him while he was orator's agent; and orator avers that he has no means of knowing to whom said cotton and other products were sold, except by and through discovery from said Hardy, and the parties who received from him said cotton and other products; and orator avers, from the manner in which plantation books were kept by said Hardy and from his failure to render an account of his agency, and from the number of bales of cotton and amount of corn made on said plantation for the said several years, and from the many and divers sales of said cotton and corn by said Hardy, while acting as such agent or overseer, without the knowledge and consent of orator, and against orator's instructions, the...