Whelan v. Hackney

• Decision Date: 31 August 1859
• Citation: Whelan v. Hackney, 29 Ga. 315 (Ga. 1859)
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court
• Parties: Charles Whelan, plaintiff in error. vs. Edwards & Hackney, defendants in error.

29 Ga. 315

Charles Whelan, plaintiff in error. vs. Edwards & Hackney, defendants in error.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

AUGUST TERM, 1859.

Assumpsit, in Coweta Superior Court. Tried before Judge Hammond, March Term, 1859.

This was an action by Richard H. Edwards and William H. Hackney, merchants and partners in trade, under the name and firm of Edwards & Hackney, against Charles Whelan, for the recovery of one hundred and fifty dollars; and was predicated upon the promise contained in the following letter written by defendant and addressed to one of the plaintiffs, to wit:

"Greensboro, April 30, 1856.

Mr. R. H. Edwards:

Dear Sir: I received yours of the 26th inst, the first word since I left Newnan. You say you will take the $150, and be the loser that much. I regret that you should lose, but if you can tell who the gainer is, or ever will be, in that transaction, I will feel obliged to you. Yet I hope that my son Francis will be the gainer by being able to take a retrospective view of his gambling, drinking and general dissipation during several years past in your town. I hope the past will be by him received in such a way as to be a valuable lesson to him. I am led by his high regard for your person and interest only, to pay you the $150; as to the value he received, God knows it was anything but value; his value was loss of sleep, loss of money, absence from his family and business; and, worse than all, loss of character and practice. Yet, he says, you are one of his best friends; as such, I want you to advise and admonish and reprove him for the past, and caution him against the future. You are able to give him a lesson of experience. Be his friend, and I am yours.

CHARLES WHELAN."

P. S.—"Will you risk my sending the money by mail to Newnan, having the letter registered, and take the postmaster's receipt? C. WHELAN."

The defendant's son, Francis, was owing plaintiffs one hundred and seventy-two dollars and nine cents, besides interest, by four promissory notes, and the hundred and fifty dollars promised to be paid in the foregoing letter was in payment of those notes, and which defendant afterward refused to pay.

Plaintiffs proved by Richard M. Hackney that at plain-tiff\'s request he called on defendant in the town of Newnan, and asked him if he had written a letter to R. H, Edwards; he said he had, and that he did intend to pay $150, but he had changed his mind, having been written to by so many of his son\'s creditors. Witness and defendant were talking about debts due by defendant\'s son to Edwards & Hackney; defendant said he was much obliged to them for waiting with his son; that he had sent the money to Hugh Buchanan to pay this debt, but did not send any instructions to him what to do with it; that he thought he had paid all his son\'s debts, but afterwards, receiving so many letters about his son\'s grocery debts, he concluded not to pay any more.

The presiding judge charged the jury, who returned a verdict for the plaintiffs for $150. Whereupon, defendant moved for a new trial, on the following grounds:

1st. That the court erred in admitting the evidence of Richard M. Hackney to prove that the promise contained in the letter of defendant was a promise to pay to Edwards & Hackney, and not to R. H. Edwards.—counsel for defendant objecting to the admission of the testimony at the time it was offered.

2d. That the court erred in admitting said letter in evidence, the same not containing any promise to pay a debt due to Edwards & Hackney—defendant's counsel objecting to the same at the time.

3d. Because the court erred in charging the jury, that the letter written...