Case ID: tapp-rep_1/html/0092-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "President,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

MEANS vs. SMITH.
    Credits on a book account, are payments.
    The balance appearing due, is the only debt.
    Appeal by tbe defendant, from tbe judgment of a justice of the peace.
    Declaration in Assumpsit. Damages laid at sixty dollars.
    Plea — Non-Assumpsit and set-off.
    The plaintiff produced his book account to support his action. It was admitted by the defendant, without proof. The whole amount of the plaintiff’s charges against the defendant was $200; the plaintiff had credited the defendant divers payments, amounting to $140; and he claimed to recover the balance of $60. The defendant’s set-off was all the items credited in the plaintiff’s book.
    Goodenow, for the defendant,
    contended that he was entitled to judgment for $80, being the amount of his set-off proven by plaintiff’s book, over the damages sued for by the plaintiff. The plaintiff has thought proper to sue for a part of his account, he must be taken to have abandoned the residue of it; he claims only sixty dollars; this we are willing to allow him; but he appears to owe the defendant a greater sum than that; we are, therefore, entitled to judgment for the balance due to us, with costs.
    Wright, for the plaintiff.
   President,

to the defendant’s counsel: — Are the sums credited by the defendant correct, and as much as you claim P

Goodenow. — They are. Wo take the plaintiff’s book to prove our set-off.

President. — The credits given on the plaintiff’s book are of so much paid him by the defendant. Payment extinguishes a debt. The payment of $140, in this case, has extinguished so much of the plaintiff’s claim, and reduced it within the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace. It seems that the defendant wishes to avail himself of his payments twice over. It would be strange if the law countenanced such knavery, or could be made use of for so fraudulent a purpose.

Judgment for the plaintiff.