Unseld v. Stephenson

• Decision Date: 31 October 1862
• Parties: JOHN C. UNSELD, Respondent, v. JAMES N. STEPHENSON et al., Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

33 Mo. 161

JOHN C. UNSELD, Respondent,

v.JAMES N. STEPHENSON et al., Appellants.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1862.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court.

A. R. Kellam, for respondent.

Knox & Smith, for appellants.

The facts are stated in the opinion.

BAY, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The suit was founded on a note executed by defendants to one Burke for $1,000, assigned by Burke to Coons after maturity, and by Coons endorsed and transferred to plaintiff.

In answer to the petition, defendants state that James N. Stephenson, one of the defendants, and Coons, on the 19th of June, 1856, about the time of the execution of the note, entered into articles of copartnership in carrying on the Missouri Hotel, in the city of St. Louis, at that time carried on by said Stephenson; that by the tenor of said agreement Coons was to pay to said Stephenson the sum of one thousand dollars, in consideration of being admitted into the partnership; that the note sued upon was executed to enable Coons to raise the money so agreed to be paid, and they suppose he received the money and vested it in the business as his share of the capital; that Coons afterwards paid and satisfied said note, and, instead of cancelling it, took an assignment to himself, and then assigned it to plaintiff; that the note was in fact given for money loaned by Burke to Coons, and that the assignment to plaintiff was made to defraud the defendants.

Upon the trial the defendants read in evidence the article of copartnership, by which the parties stipulated to carry on the business for a period of one year from the 19th June, 1856, the net profits to be equally divided between them.

The defendants then introduced Coons as a witness, who testified that the consideration of the note was money loaned by Burke to Stephenson; that he procured the loan for Stephenson; that the note had not been paid, and that he had never agreed or promised to pay it; that it was assigned to witness for collection, and that he transferred it to plaintiff in payment of a debt due from him to plaintiff amounting to about $600. This was all the evidence given in the cause, whereupon the defendant asked the court, sitting as a jury, to declare the law as follows:

“That if the loan was procured by Coons of Burke on the note of defendants, and the proceeds, under the agreement read in evidence, used in the business of the Missouri Hotel, carried on by defendant James N. Stephenson and Philip Coons, and that...