Thomas McFarland Lumber Co. v. Selby

• Decision Date: 16 October 1922
• Docket Number: 22275
• Citation: 93 So. 434,129 Miss. 894
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: THOS. MCFARLAND LUMBER CO. v. SELBY et al

93 So. 434

129 Miss. 894

THOS. MCFARLAND LUMBER CO. v. SELBY et al

No. 22275

Supreme Court of Mississippi

October 16, 1922

1. FRAUDS, STATUTE OF. Oral promise to pay debt to creditor of another not within statute.

Where a firm was about to bring attachment proceedings to enforce a lien claimed upon lumber, and where a buyer from such debtor of the person about to attach agrees that, if said party will forego the attachment and let the lumber be shipped to the promisor, it will pay the amount claimed by the promisee, and where, relying on such promise, the lumber is shipped, the promise is not within the statute of frauds, requiring promise to answer for debt of another to be in writing. Delta Lumber Co. v. Wall, 119 Miss. 350, 80 So. 782 and Lee v. Newman, 55 Miss. 365, cited.

2. PRINCIPAL AND AGENT. Principal held bound by agent's agreement to pay for lumber on abandonment of attachment.

Where an agent had general charge of the principal's business in this state in buying, grading, measuring, and loading lumber, and makes a trade with a firm for lumber, and such lumber is about to be attached by the creditor of the firm selling, and where, to avoid delay in the shipment and to avoid litigation, such agent agrees with the claimant about to attach that, if they will abandon the attachment and let the lumber be shipped, his principal will pay said claim, and where the lumber is shipped to, and used by, the principal after such agreement he will be liable on such promise.

HON. E L. BRIEN, Judge.

APPEAL from circuit court of Warren county, HON. E. L. BRIEN, Judge.

Suit by Thos. W. Selby and others against the Thos. McFarland Lumber Company and others. Judgment for plaintiffs, and defendant named appeals. Affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

Wm. J McKay, for appellant.

The maintenance of the suit is defeated by several insuperable bars. A. Statute of Frauds. Section 3119 of Hemingway's Code provides: "An action shall not be brought whereby to charge a defendant or other party-- (a) Upon any special promise to answer for the debt or default or miscarriage of another person; unless . . . the promise or agreement upon which such action may be brought, or some memorandum or note thereof shall be in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or some person by him or her thereunto lawfully authorized."

It goes without saying that the action in the case at bar was and is not brought on any promise or agreement, or any memorandum or note thereof, in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or any person by the defendant thereunto lawfully authorized.

"It is requisite that credit should be given exclusively to the promisor (defendant, Thomas McFarland Lumber Company); if any credit be given to him (defendants, Simrall & Grogan) for whose benefit the promise is made, the promisor is not liable unless his promise is in writing." 127 Ala. 240; 74 Ga. 454; 1 Ill. 79; 62 Ind. 156; 23 La. Ann., 690; 36 Me. 113; 13 Md. 190; 13 Allen (Mass.) 136; 94 Mich. 363; 34 Minn. 410; 78 Mo.App. 234; 27 N. J. L. 440; 1 Hilt. (N. Y.) 209; 76 Pa. St. 97; 25 R. I. 129; 15 Vt. 422; 10 Leigh (Va.) 155; 23 W.Va. 724; 91 Wis. 65; In the case at bar credit was continued to be given to defendants, Simrall & Grogan, the primary and original debtors, and they continued liable, for the conclusive reason that they were sued as co-defendants, with the defendant, Thomas McFarland Lumber Company and judgment obtained both on the original and collateral undertakings. Just such a case as this the court decided in the case of Sweatman v. Parker, 49 Miss. 19.

But acting upon the general rule as stated by Roberts and Kent some of the American courts have held, that wherever there was a new consideration, distinct from that which supported the original debtor's lability, and moving between the parties to the guaranty, the defendant's promise was saved from the statute. However respectable the countenance it has received, this doctrine, if unqualified, must be repudiated as not based upon authority, and as, to a great degree, nullifying the statute. And it may also be fairly said that the better opinion of courts and of commentators is now leaning against it.

The qualification required is that the original debtor's liability must be discharged by the new promise, which is not true in the case at bar. All this court has to do is to substitute the names of the parties in the case at bar in the appropriate places in the above quoted opinion and the solution of the case at bar in favor of the appellant necessarily follows. The court will be pleased to note how approvingly the court quotes the above from the Sweatman-Parker case in the case of Bloom v. McGrath, 53 Miss. 249. If the primary or original debtor is not discharged and the original debt still subsists concurrently with the oral agreement to assume it, the latter is within the statute of frauds and is void as a collateral agreement to answer for the debt of another. 69 Ala. 48; 61 P. 578; 18 Colo.App. 449; 35 Conn. 343; 101 Ga. 307; 156 Ill. 555; 60 Ind. 46, 105 Ia. 499; 46 Kan. 389; 79 Me. 282; 111 Mass. 501; 77 Mich. 504; 31 Mo. 424; Lalor 109 (N. Y.) 36 O. St. 331; 28 Ore. 242; 9 Phila. (Pa.) 22; 2 Mill (S. C.) 113; 56 S.W. 543; 41 Vt. 311; 11 Gratt. (Va.) 636; 88 Wis. 542; Hendricks v. Robinson, 56 Miss. 694.

If it be contended that the case at bar is taken out of the operation of the statute by the alleged fact that plaintiffs, Selby & Woods, refrained from threatened attachment proceedings against the lumber, which defendant, Thomas McFarland Lumber Company, had before then innocently bought and paid for in full from defendants, Simrall & Grogan, the conclusive reply is that:

"It is well settled that a promise to pay the debt of another in consideration merely of forbearance to the creditor to sue the original debtor or to make an attachment, or levy an execution, without any new or original consideration moving to the promisor and beneficial to him, is within the statute of frauds, and must be in writing." 85 Ala. 127; 60 Conn. 71; 11 Colo. 415; 3 Ill. 511; 160 Ind. 70; 2 Ia. 528; 13 B. Mon. (Ky.) 356; 33 Me. 373; 11 Allen (Mass.) 365; 71 Mich. 201; 79 Minn. 309; 7 Mo. 495; 16 N. J. L. 302; 108 N.Y. 222; 15 Ore. 356; 1 Strobh. (S. C.) 5; 4 Yerg. (Tenn.) 563; 48 Vt. 58; 9 Wash. 442; 1 K. B. (Eng.) 778; 27 Ont. (Can.) 285; and see particularly the principles announced in the cases cited and quoted from above from our own court. As well settled by all of the authorities, if it had been true that plaintiffs, Selby & Woods had a lien on the lumber, which defendant, Thomas McFarland Lumber Company, without notice or knowledge thereof, had bought and fully paid for from defendants, Simrall & Grogan, then the alleged oral promise of defendant, Thomas McFarland Lumber Company to pay the primary debt of the original debtors, defendants, Simrall & Grogan, would be taken out of the operation of the statute of frauds only in the event that plaintiffs, Selby & Woods, actually assigned their lien to defendant, Thomas McFarland Lumber Company, and that the benefit of such lien should have actually inured to Thomas McFarland Lumber Company. But under the principles announced in the Sweatman-Parker case, it is not believed that even in the above supposed case would the oral, collateral promise be taken out of the statute, because the primary obligation of the original debtor, Simrall & Grogan, was not discharged, but sued on and reduced to judgment along with the collateral, oral undertaking of the defendant Thomas McFarland Lumber Company." In fact the general rule elsewhere also is: "A parol promise to pay the debt of another merely in consideration of forbearance by the creditor to enforce a lien against the original debtor will not be enforced if such forbearance does not inure to the benefit of the promisor and the original debtor remains liable." 85 Ala. 127; 33 Ill.App. 261; 129 Ind. 542; 58 Me. 439; 106 Mass. 400; 117 Mich. 553; 98 N. 425. Therefore, it is confidently submitted that the oral promise sued on, if made, was and is void under the statute of frauds.

John Brunini, for appellee.

We are of the opinion that it would be idle on our part to cite authorities to show that the principal is bound as between himself and third persons by the real and apparent authority with which the agent is vested, and we deem it equally idle to further review the facts to show the real and apparent authority of Rehse and Young in relation to this transaction.

The Statute of Frauds. This case is governed by the principles announced by this honorable court in the case of Lee v. Newman, 55 Miss. 365, 372, 373, 374. 3 Pars. on Con. (5 Ed.), 24. The contract not being within the statute, this cardinal test of whether it is a collateral or an original undertaking (see Sweatman v. Parker, 49 Miss. 19, and Bloom v. McGrath, et al., 53 Miss. 249) does not apply. It is not the debt of another, but his own debt, which he has promised to pay, and neither the fact that the payment is to be made to a third person, nor the fact that in paying his own debt he extinguishes that of another, nor the fact that the liability of that other continues the same after as before his undertaking, brings it within the statute.

It is usually said that: "if the consideration of the new promise springs out of any new transaction, or moves to the party promising upon some fresh and substantive ground of personal concern to himself, the statute of frauds does not attach. Mr. Browne, in his work on the statute of frauds, considers that a safer method of stating the rule would be to say that wherever, "the primary and distinctive obligation assumed by the defendant is different from that of a guarantor, although as incidental...