Case ID: minn_37/html/0508-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Dickinson, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

William Meyenberg, by his next friend, vs. C. J. C. Eldred.
    December 12, 1887.
    Action by Infant — Proof of Infancy. — In an action prosecuted by an infant through his next friend, the answer denying the alleged infancy, the plaintiff need not prove that he is an infant, his right of action not depending upon that fact.
    .Error without Prejudice. — Improper evidence of value held not prejudicial, the verdict being within the value as fixed by other and undisputed evidence.
    Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the district court for Chippewa county, Brown, J., presiding, affirming a judgment of a justice of the peace. The action wa,s brought to recover the value of services rendered, the plaintiff suing as an infant, by his next friend.
    
      T. F. Knappen, for appellant.
    
      Lyndon A. Smith, for respondent.
   Dickinson, J.

This action is to recover for services rendered by the plaintiff for the defendant. The answer put in issue the alleged minority of the plaintiff. His right to sue and to recover did not depend upon his being a minor, and it was quite unnecessary for him to prove his infancy upon the trial.

There is no reasonable ground for questioning the admissibility of the evidence as to the value of the services, excepting as to that of the witness Falkenhagen, who testified that he was employing the plaintiff at the time of the trial, and was paying him $18 a month. This was error, but it did not in fact prejudice the cause of the defendant; for the other evidence in the case, which was wholly undisputed and unopposed, showed this service to have been worth a sum fully as large as that allowed by the jury.

Judgment affirmed.