Petit v. Woodlief
| Decision Date | 24 October 1894 |
| Citation | 115 N.C. 120,20 S.E. 208 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | PETIT. v. WOODLIEF. |
Release and Discharge—Acceptance of Draft.
Where a draft for part of an indebtedness was sent by letter, both draft and letter stating that it was to be in full payment of the debt, the creditor, by converting the draft into money, elects to accept the compromise, and the debt is thereby discharged in full.
Appeal from superior court, Wake county; Hoke, Judge.
Action by Charles W. Petit against L. Woodlief on a contract for repairing a boiler. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed.
T. R. Purnell, for appellant.
Strong & Strong, for appellee.
The defendant inclosed in a letter a draft to the plaintiff for $300, setting forth upon its face that it was to operate as a payment in full of a claim for repairing an engine. The defendant contended that only $250 was in fact due, but stated in his letter that he had concluded to send $300. The letter and draft, construed together, constituted a proposal of compromise; and even though in reality a larger sum was due, as the jury found, if the offer was accepted, either expressly or by implication arising from the defendant's conduct, there was not simply a valid executory agreement but an executed contract, as in that event the payment operated to discharge the whole claim.
The defendant, Woodlief, not only stated in his letter that the draft for $300 was inclosed "to settle with you [plaintiff] in full to date, " but according to the undisputed testimony the same words, or the equivalent expression, "settlement in full to date, " were incorporated in the draft itself, which was drawn on Strudwick & Royster, and was afterwards destroyed by fire. When the plaintiff indorsed this draft and collected the money, with the proposal staring him in the face that it should, if received, operate to discharge the whole debt, instead of returning it to the drawer and declining the offer, we think that his conduct amounted to an acceptance of it, and the debt was therefore discharged in full. Our statute (Code, § 575) having been declared constitutional, the offer of a part in satisfaction of the whole, if accepted, discharges a debt as fully and effectually as if the entire sum originally due is paid in full. When the amount due is uncertain or unliquidated, if an offer in satisfaction of the claim is accompanied with such acts and declarations as amount to a condition that the money shall be accepted only as...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Pekin Cooperage Co. v. Gibbs
...472; 129 S.W. 138; 113 Mo.App. 612, 88 S.W. 128; 138 N.Y. 231, 20 L. R. A. 785; 31 L. R. A. 771; 161 Ill. 339, 43 N.E. 1089; 115 N.C. 120, 20 S.E. 208; 100 599, 75 S.W. 178; 188 Mo. 611, 87 S.W. 981; 75 Ark. 354. See also 148 N.Y. 332; 145 Mo. 659; 66 N.W. 834; 166 Mo. 335; 83 O. St. 169, 3......
-
Whittaker Chain Tread Co. v. Standard Auto Supply Co.
... ... Standard Construction Co., 134 Ky ... 198, 119 S.W. 765; Canton Coal Co. v. Parlin, 215 ... Ill. 244, 74 N.E. 143, 106 Am. St. Rep. 162; Petit v ... Woodlief, 115 N.C. 120, 20 S.E. 208; Pollman & Bros ... Coal & Sprinkling Co. v. St. Louis, 145 Mo. 651, 47 S.W ... 563; Potter v ... ...
-
De Loache v. De Loache
... ... check, he is bound thereby. Davis Sulphur Ore Co. v ... Powers, 130 N.C. 152, 41 S.E. 6; Petit v ... Woodlief, 115 N.C. 120, 20 S.E. 208; Cline v ... Rudisill, 126 N.C. 525, 36 S.E. 36; Wittkowsky v ... Baruch, 127 N.C. 315, 37 S.E. 449; ... ...
-
Talbott v. English
...full knowledge that it was offered him, only upon the condition that its acceptance should be in discharge of the whole claim. In the Petit case, supra, it is said: "The party whom the offer is made must of necessity understand, from its very terms, that if he takes the money he takes it su......