Case ID: ad_30/html/0486-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Barrett, J.:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Francis J. Tobias, doing Business under the Firm Name and Style of Tobias Brothers, Respondent, v. John P. Wierck and Charles H. Wierck, Appellants, and Henry Schrader, Defendant, as Surviving Partners of the Late Firm or Copartnership of John P. Wierck & Co.
    
      Services — what is a sufficient notice of a change in the prn'ty to whom they are being rendered — who is liable for them.
    
    A party who had rendered services to a firm in advertising the trips of a steamboat, of which the firm was a part owner, after the organization of a corporation to which the steamboat was transferred continued to render such services, making out bills against the firm, which previous to such transfer had paid the bills by the personal checks of one of its members. After the transfer the bills rendered to the firm were altered by the latter’s bookkeeper, who inserted the name of the corporation as debtor in place of the firm, and checks of the corporation, signed by its treasurer and countersigned by its president, were returned in payment thereof, the checks being received and the bills receipted and the checks indorsed for deposit by a party who had acted as agent for the plaintiff during the entire time. Thereafter this agent made out the bills against the corporation.
    
      -5eld, that the firm was not liable for the services rendered after the transfer of the steamboat to the corporation, since the plaintiff’s agent accepted the corporation as the debtor;
    That the fact that one of the members of the firm agreed to pay a part of the bill rather than be troubled with'a law suit was clearly an attempt to compromise a claim, the validity of which he denied, and did not authorize a recovery by the party rendering the services.
    Appeal by the defendants, John P. Wierck and Charles IT. Wierck, from a judgment of the Supreme Court in favor of the plaintiff, entered in tire office of the clerk of the county of Hew York on the 4th day of December, 1897, upon the decision of the court rendered after a trial at the Hew York Trial Term before the court without a jury.
    The action is brought to recover for services alleged to have been rendered to the defendants, at their request, between June 30 and Hovember 1,1892. These services consisted in advertising the trips of the steamboat llamara. It appears that during the year 1891, and up to March 15, 1892, this boat was owned by the defendants and one Wohlers. On that day they organized a corporation under Hew Jersey laws, called the Liberty Steamboat Company, and transferred the boat to it. During 1891 the plaintiff did considerable advertising for the boat. The bills were then made out to, and were paid by, John P. Wierck & Co., seemingly by personal checks of John P. Wierck. After the incorporation, Beyer, plaintiff’s bookkeeper, rendered three bills for advertising to Wierck & Co. The latter’s bookkeeper, one Hiedner, inserted the name of the corporation as debtor in place of that of Wierck & Co., and checks of the company, signed by its treasurer and countersigned by its president, were thereupon remitted in payment. Beyer received and receipted the bills, and indorsed the checks for deposit as the plaintiff’s attorney. Subsequent bills he made out in the name of the corporation.
    
      William S. Maddox, for the appellants.
    
      George Welwood Murray, for the respondent.
   Barrett, J.:

We need not consider the question of the defendants’ liability as part owners of the Havana, apart from any partnership contract. The claim here is not for necessaries and supplies suitable and proper for the ship. The defendants’ liability, if any, rests upon their alleged express contract. The plaintiff’s proof on this head was slight. He showed that in 1891 orders for advertising were brought to the plaintiff’s office by Hiedner, the defendants’ bookkeeper. Hiedner did this under the direction of one of the defendants. The plaintiff was represented in the transaction solely by his bookkeeper, Beyer; and he had nothing to do personally with the arrangements which Beyer made with the defendants. Beyer is dead; and the plaintiff’s case rests mainly upon the fact that, from time to time, his bills were rendered to, and paid by, the defendants’ firm Upon these facts, standing alone, the learned trial judge was perhaps justified in finding that the plaintiff’s earlier services were rendered upon the faith of the defendants’ credit. The difficulty is in extending that finding to the services rendered by the plaintiff after the transfer of the Ilavmuo to the Liberty Steamboat Company. We are unable to discover -any evidence to support the latter finding. In fact, we think it plain that the advertising now sued for was done for and upon the credit of this corporation.

The evidence on this head, due doubtless to the death of Beyer, is mostly documentary. It appears that, after the transfer, Beyer continued to make out bills in the name of Wierck & Co. These, however, were changed by the latter into the name of the company, and returned with corporate checks signed and countersigned by its officers. This was plain notice that Wierck & Co. refused any longer to be considered the plaintiff’s debtors, and insisted that the company now took that position. The plaintiff acquiesced in this by accepting the company’s checks, and thereafter making out the bills in its name. The effect of this evidence is precisely the same as that upon which the plaintiff claims to have made out a contract between himself and the defendants. Up to a certain point, the bills were made to, and paid by, the firm. Upon that the plaintiff claims that the defendants contracted with and pledged their credit to him. But when that course of business ceased ; when the bills Avere no longer thus made out and paid; when in fact they were made out to, and paid by, the corporation, the old arrangement ceased, and the neAV one Avent into effect. It is said that the former owners of the Havana might have continued business under the style of the Liberty Steamboat Company. That is true, but the plaintiff’s bookkeeper could have had no such understanding. There Avas no reason to suppose that this Avas a mere change of partnership name, and the form of the checks sent to the plaintiff, signed and countersigned by ostensible officers of the company, plainly indicated that a corporation had been formed.

The fact that the plaintiff did not personally learn of the formation of the corporation until later cannot aid him. He is bound by Beyer’s knowledge. He admits that the latter was acting for him, and. that lie attended to all the work “ excepting checking and the placing of the business.” -It was he who received orders, made out and receipted bills, and indorsed checks. The plaintiff merely took the orders and placed them.

Nor did the defendant John P. Wierck bind himself by the conversation with the plaintiff some two years later, to which the latter testified. The substance of this conversation was that Wierck agreed to pay a part of the plaintiff’s bill rather than be troubled with a lawsuit. What he offered was clearly as a compromise of a claim which he denied. There is nothing in what transpired at that interview, even as narrated by the plaintiff, to change the legal effect of the actual facts upon which the question of liability here rests. We think it clear that, even if the defendants were within the partnership rule, and were bound to give the plaintiff notice of the change in question, they in fact did so.

The judgment should, therefore, be reversed, and a new trial ordered, with costs to the appellant to abide the event.

Patterson, O’Brien and McLaughlin, JJ., concurred.

Judgment reversed, new trial ordered, costs to appellant to abide event.