Sand-Blast File-Sharpening Co. v. Parsons

• Decision Date: 17 December 1886
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: SAND-BLAST FILE-SHARPENING CO. v. PARSONS.

7 A. 716

54 Conn. 310

SAND-BLAST FILE-SHARPENING CO.

v. PARSONS.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

December 17, 1886.

Appeal from superior court, Fairfield county.

Scire facias upon foreign attachment. Defendant had judgment below.

J. C. Chamberlain, for appellants.

G. Stoddard and W. S. Haviland, for appellee.

CARPENTER, J. This is a complaint in scire facias upon a process of foreign attachment, alleging that the defendant was indebted to one Ryan at the time the process in the original suit was served. The answer denies such indebtedness. The superior court found the issue for the defendant, and the plaintiff appealed.

In May, 1882, the defendant, who was the owner of a patented invention for sharpening files, constituted Ryan his agent on certain specified terms, and within certain limits, to sell licenses and shop-rights to use the invention on the line of railroad companies. Ryan was not to collect or receive any money for the sale of licenses or machines, but was to cause the same to be paid for by drafts on New York, drawn by the purchaser, and payable to the defendant; and was not to make any bills, or contract any against the defendant, but was to pay all his own expenses, and receive for his services and expenses only the commissions provided for. The contract then provides as follows: "The party of the second part [Ryan] is to be paid by the party of the first part [Parsons] a commission of fifty per cent. on mileage of railroad track in the territory of Asa S. Parsons, thirty-five per cent. on length of road-bed [miles] in the territory of the Sandblast File-sharpening Company, and thirty-three and one third per cent. on mileage of track in the territory of William A. Foster, from the proceeds of the sale of a license to a railroad company, within ten days after the party of the first part receives payment for the license sold, and machine or machines furnished, which sum is to be payment in full for all services and expenses of the party of the second part under this agreement."

Acting under this agreement, Ryan, on the twenty-first day of August, 1882, obtained a contract with the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company, and placed a machine in their works. That contract was between the railroad company and Parsons, and provided that the railroad company should pay to Parsons the sum of $3,600, in three installments of $1,200 each, by draft on New York, payable to the order of Asa S. Parsons, in three, six, and...