Wright v. Armwood, 1520.
Decision Date | 10 September 1954 |
Docket Number | No. 1520.,1520. |
Citation | 107 A.2d 702 |
Parties | Grant WRIGHT, Appellant, v. Henry P. ARMWOOD, Appellee. |
Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
Barrington D. Parker, Washington, D. C., with whom George A. Parker, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellee.
Before CAYTON, Chief Judge, and HOOD and QUINN, Associate Judges.
In 1948 Grant Wright and Henry Armwood formed a partnership to conduct a frozen custard business in Richmond, Virginia. Armwood, who alone managed the business, closed it about a year later. Thereafter Wright was compelled to pay a creditor of the partnership the full amount due on a joint promissory note which the partners had given for equipment. He brought this action to require contribution by Armwood. The trial court ruled that the suit could not be maintained because no accounting or settlement of the partnership accounts had ever been reached between the parties. From that decision Wright appeals.
Since the partnership was formed in Virginia and its sole business conducted there, the question must be decided according to Virginia law. But no problem of conflicts is presented, for the law of that State is not at variance with that of this jurisdiction or with the decisions we have found elsewhere. It is no doubt the rule that actions at law may not generally be brought by one partner against another even after the dissolution of the partnership until the partnership accounts have been settled.1 But as we have had occasion to say in an earlier case, this general rule is subject to well recognized exceptions. Boyle v. Smith, supra, footnote 1. There we said that: 2
We have found no Virginia decision expressing a different view and we will presume that the general principles we have stated are applicable to this situation. Therefore, applying here what we said in the Boyle case, we think the dispute could have been adjudicated without a prior formal accounting. The claim was for a definite amount represented by a single promissory note of the partnership and it is unlikely that there would have been much difficulty in determining the respective rights and obligations of the parties with respect thereto.
But even if it could be said that there were legal or practical reasons for not proceeding with the case as a debt action, it would have been sounder practice not to put plaintiff completely out of court, without giving him an opportunity to ask for an accounting.
It is now settled beyond question that the Municipal Court has exclusive jurisdiction in equitable actions when the debt or damages claimed, or the claimed value of personal property, does not exceed $3,000. Rowe v. Nolan, 79 U.S.App. D.C. 35, 142 F.2d 93; Klepinger v. Rhodes, 78 U.S.App.D.C. 340, 140 F.2d 697, certiorari denied 322 U.S. 734, 64 S.Ct. 1047, 88 L.Ed. 1568; Shulman v. Shulman, D. C.Mun.App., 86 A.2d 527; Robinson v. Carter, D.C.Mun.App., 77 A.2d 174; Ridgley v. United States, D.C.Mun.App., 45 A. 2d 475. And as required by statute the court long ago adopted rules conforming its practice generally to that under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., providing one form of civil action, "whether cognizable as cases of law or in equity." Robinson v. Carter, supra . Thus the court had the statutory authority, and the procedural means as well, to render an accounting between these parties.
After considering the case in its various aspects we have been impelled to the conclusion that plaintiff should have been given an opportunity to proceed as in an accounting action, and that there was "* * * no occasion to dismiss the action because under the undoubted equitable jurisdiction of the Municipal Court a separate action for accounting would not have been necessary; it could have been had in the same cause." Boyle v. Smith, supra, 64 A.2d at page 430. Accordingly, we have decided...
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BECKMAN v. FARMER
...to partnership transactions until an accounting in equity, a settlement, or a promise to pay has been obtained. See Wright v. Armwood, 107 A.2d 702, 703 (D.C. 1954); Boyle v. Smith, 64 A.2d 428, 429 (D.C. 1949). To some extent the rule is a vestigial reflection of the historical division be......
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Warren v. Chapman
...did not arise until the partnership business was concluded, which included the payment of all partnership debts, see Wright v. Armwood, supra note 4, 107 A.2d at 704, and that Warren failed to indicate unequivocally that he was unwilling to account until he did not respond to Chapman's lett......
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Barthuly v. Barthuly
...This seems also to have been the rule at common law. Gray v. Green, Sup., 21 N.Y.S. 533, 142 N.Y. 316, 37 N.E. 124; Wright v. Armwood (D.C.Mun.App.), 107 A.2d 702; Burris v. Burris, 140 Kan. 208, 34 P.2d 127, 96 A.L.R. 432; Hodge v. Hennedy, 198 Va. 416, 94 S.E.2d 274; Riddle v. Whitehill, ......