St. Louis, I. M. & S. Ry. v. Camden Bank

• Decision Date: 16 October 1886
• Citation: 1 S.W. 704
• Parties: ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. <I>v.</I> CAMDEN BANK.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

1 S.W. 704

ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY.

v. CAMDEN BANK.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

October 16, 1886.

Appeal from Ouachita circuit court.

Action by assignee to recover amount of laborer's debts assigned to him. Judgment for plaintiff. Defendant appeals.

Dodge & Johnson, for appellant. B. W. Johnson, for appellee.

COCKRILL, C. J.

This action was instituted before a justice of the peace, to recover upon 18 "road-master's checks," as they are called in the record, and a number of memoranda of accounts delivered by the company's section foreman to laborers employed upon their road, certifying to the road-master the amount due the several laborers for services. All are filled in on printed forms furnished by the company for the purpose. Those of the same form differ from each other only in the date and amount of the account, and the person to be paid.

The following is a sample of the first form, viz.:

                                        FORM 407
                  $____.                 ROAD DEPARTMENT.           Time-check No. 11
                Not Negotiable. (See back.)
                         ST. LOUIS, IRON MOUNTAIN & SOUTHERN RAILWAY, August 31, 1882
                The bearer, Ben Dorsey, is entitled to pay for 19½ days' services as scraper, and
                  team, on sec. No. 113, in month of August, 1882, at $4 per day, - - - $78.00
                Less board due to Rumph & G., $26.66, and Employes' Home, 50 cts., -  27.16
                Balance due him, ____ dollars,  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  50.84
                  The above has been duly authorized, and will appear on the proper roll for
                the above month.                   P. McGRURY, Division Road-master
                  Received ____, 188_, of the Missouri Pacific Railway Company, the sum
                of ____ dollars, in full for services rendered as ____, in month of ____
                188_, as above stated.
                  Approved. Wm. Kerrigan, Supt. ____ Div. Houdlett.
                And the second runs in this wise:
                                         FORM 403.
                      ST. LOUIS, IRON MOUNTAIN & SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY.
                No. 22.             Certificate of Time Worked.       AUGUST 31, 1882.
                To Pat McGrury, ____ Division Road-master:
                  I certify that Tom Cross has worked 16½ days as scraper team on sec. No. 113, in
                month of August, at $4 per day, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - $66.00
                And owes board to G. M. Wright - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  48.73
                                                                                                 _______
                Balance due, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - $17.27
                                                              GEO. M. WRIGHT, Foreman Sec. No. 113.
                                              TAKE NOTICE.
                

This certificate will not be paid. It is given to be exchanged for road-master's time-check in favor of the person to whom this certificate is issued.

The company (1) denied that it was indebted upon the accounts; (2) pleaded non est factum; and (3) insisted upon bringing in the assignors of the accounts as parties to the action. A demurrer was sustained to the last paragraph of the answer.

Upon the trial it was proved that the section foreman was authorized by the company to give to laborers under his control, at stated periods, a statement of the amount that he ascertained to be due them for services rendered, in accordance with the printed form furnished him by the company for the purpose. This statement was intended to be presented to the roadmaster, — the boss of the section foreman,—who had authority to finally audit the accounts, and put them in shape for payment by the company's pay-master. This he did by the use of the printed form designated as the "road-master's time-check." The checks in suit were issued in this way, and were assigned, without written indorsement, to the appellees. The auditing of the account by the authorized agent of the company, and the acceptance of the statement by the laborer, constituted, in each case, an account stated, called in the old law insimul computassent. A balance being thus admitted by the company, a promise to pay it is implied, and upon this promise an action may be maintained without reference to the original items of the account. Laycock v. Pickles, 116 E. C. L. 496; Chace v. Trafford, 116 Mass. 529; Holmes v. Drake, 1 Johns. *34.

The acknowledgment of this indebtedness being signed by an agent of the company having authority to do so, the statement becomes the evidence of an admission in writing of the debt, and is assignable, within the meaning of the...