Case ID: njl_3/html/0313-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

AUTIN against TOWNSEND and others.
    ON CERTIORARI
    The action before the justice, was brought by Townsend and two others, on the following state of demand, to wit:
    
    Joseph Townsend, one of the plaintiffs in the above case, comes into court and demands of Thomas Autin $100, which to him he [f] owes for damages sustained for detaining the schooner Resolution thirty days from sailing on a voyage, after having cleared out for Richmond. State of Virginia ; and this the said Townsend is ready to prove, and therefore prayeth judgment against the said Thomas Autin.
    
      It was objected to this state of demand, that it did not set out a cause of action against any one. It was also contended that even if the state of demand did show a cause of action in Joseph Townsend, that the other persons joined with him could not have a right of action for an injury done to him.
    
      Neale, for the plaintiff.
   By the Court.

It is probable that the persons joined with Townsend in the action below, were his partners, and that Townsend was the acting partner, and therefore appeared in court in behalf of himself and his partners, and that they three were the joint owners of the schooner. But the court cannot go on conjecture; it is better to have no state of demand at all, than to have one that does not disclose a right of action in those who sue.

Judgment reversed.

Cited in Erwing v. Ingram, Zab. 520.