Case Title: Green v. Kensinger

Citation: 193 Kan. 33, 392 P.2d 122

Docket Number: 43,596

State: kansas

Court: Kansas Supreme Court

Date: 1964-05-09T00:00:00Z

Document:
193 Kan. 33 (1964)
392 P.2d 122
R.C. GREEN, Appellant,
v.
HUBERT KENSINGER, Appellee.
No. 43,596

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed May 9, 1964.
W.H. Coutts, III, of El Dorado, argued the cause, and W.H. Coutts, Jr., of El Dorado, was with him on the briefs for the appellant.
T.D. Hampson, of Fredonia, argued the cause and was on the briefs for the appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
FONTRON, J.:
The plaintiff, R.C. Green, has appealed from a judgment rendered against him in an action to recover money allegedly loaned to the defendant, Hubert Kensinger. Plaintiff's petition contained two counts, the first alleging that in February, 1958, the parties entered into an oral agreement whereby plaintiff loaned defendant the sum of $6,666.60 by personal check; that defendant agreed to pay the same with interest, on demand; and that demand was made and payment refused. The check itself was payable to Arthur E. Freeman, but defendant admitted at the trial that it was applied to the payment of a trust deed on his own apartment property.
The second count alleged a subsequent similar oral agreement in which the plaintiff loaned $1,700.00 to the defendant, which the *34 defendant agreed to repay with interest, on demand; and that demand was made and refused. The defendant conceded at the trial that this check was credited to his account at a Fredonia bank.
An answer was filed by the defendant generally denying all allegations except the residence and addresses of the parties. The answer further contained an allegation that plaintiff's claim is barred by the statute of limitations. The defense of the statute of limitations was apparently resolved in plaintiff's favor, as indicated in his brief, and no question concerning it is presented in this appeal.
The defendant also filed a cross petition alleging, in effect, that he and the plaintiff had been engaged, as partners, in the business of buying and selling trust deeds, in the operation of which business each partner was to maintain a trust deed account in his own name for the benefit of the partnership, and that upon request of either partner the accounts would be equalized and the profits, after equalization, divided equally. The defendant further alleged that he believed the plaintiff was indebted to him in excess of $12,000.00 and prayed for an accounting and for judgment for such amount as was shown due him. In a second count, the defendant sought to recover for damages sustained by his Thunderbird car while the same was in plaintiff's possession.
On the day of trial, the defendant orally moved to dismiss his cross petition. This motion was sustained and the case then proceeded to trial to the court on the petition and the answer. During trial the defendant was permitted, over plaintiff's objections, to introduce documentary and other evidence which tended to show an arrangement between the parties for the purchase and sale of trust deeds, with profits to be equally divided, and that the two checks in question were given to equalize the partners' accounts. In admitting such evidence, the trial court stated:
*35 At the conclusion of the trial, the following findings of fact and conclusions of law were entered by the court:
"FINDINGS OF FACT.
"CONCLUSIONS OF LAW.
Motions to set aside the findings of fact and conclusions of law and to obtain a new trial were filed by plaintiff and, upon their being overruled, this appeal followed.
Three main contentions are advanced and argued by plaintiff on this appeal: First, that error was committed in admitting evidence concerning the alleged partnership and the transactions had in connection therewith, Second, that the findings of fact are inadequate and the conclusions of law erroneous and insufficient and, *36 Third, that the trial court erred in not decreeing an accounting of the affairs of the partnership found to exist. These claims will be considered in order.
It is true that after the defendant withdrew his cross petition, there no longer remained any positive allegations of partnership. However, under the defendant's answer which denied the allegations of the plaintiff's petition, any competent evidence tending to negate or refute the cause of action alleged would be admissible.
In 41 Am. Jur., Pleading, § 366, pp. 541, 542, the rule is stated:
Although receipt of the two checks is not disputed by the defendant, he does contend they do not evidence loans of money to him. His contention is, very simply, that the transactions evidenced by the checks were not loans, but were payments to him of funds due him to equalize his partnership account. Evidence to substantiate such a claim would clearly negative a cause of action to recover for money loaned.
The plaintiff cannot successfully maintain that defendant's evidence was in the nature of confession and avoidance, and thus admissible only under such a plea. In 41 Am. Jur., Pleading, § 158, p. 403, it is stated:
The evidence to which plaintiff makes objection did not admit, inferentially or otherwise, that plaintiff had loaned the defendant money or that the defendant was in anywise indebted to plaintiff for money borrowed. Quite to the contrary, the evidence offered met head-on the question of whether plaintiff had loaned the defendant money, rather than showing a reason for evading repayment of loans admittedly received. We believe the trial court's ruling to such effect was correct.
No good purpose would be served by summarizing here the quite voluminous evidence introduced at the trial. It is sufficient to say *37 that from the appellant's own abstract it appears there was evidence to the effect that the checks involved in this action were given in the course of partnership business to equalize partnership accounts. Although that evidence was contradicted, it has long been the established rule that where findings are supported by substantial competent evidence they will not be disturbed on appeal. (See Dennis v. Smith, 186 Kan. 539, 352 P.2d 405, and cases therein cited.) The evidence not only provides a basis for the findings of fact, but the findings themselves support the court's judgment.
The court's second conclusion of law, which is the one primarily challenged by the plaintiff, reads as follows: "This is not a suit for an accounting, and in the absence of an accounting the court cannot determine whether one partner is indebted to the other." A major portion of the brief submitted by plaintiff is devoted to the court's failure, in the face of that finding, to direct an accounting of the partnership business which was found to exist.
However, this action was brought for the recovery of money had and received by the defendant pursuant to an agreement on his part to repay the same. Issue was joined by a general denial and the case proceeded to trial on the single legal issue thus presented. At no time during the trial did plaintiff seek to expand his cause of action or to invoke the court's equitable power to proceed with an accounting. At all times he strenuously and consistently objected to the introduction of any evidence which savored of partnership dealings or business. Nor did the defendant, after having withdrawn his cross petition, inject the issue of accounting into the case. Thus, neither party attempted to invoke the jurisdiction of the court to decree an accounting or endeavored to bring such matter to the court's attention, even though they might have been in position to do so.
Under these circumstances, it appears that the judgment entered by the trial court was not only squarely within the sole issue presented both by the pleadings and by the parties themselves during trial, but that it was the only decision which the court could properly render under that issue. In Shriver v. Board of County Commissioners, 189 Kan. 548, 370 P.2d 124, this court said:
"In the opinion it was said:
Failure of the court to decree an accounting was not included as a ground for a new trial in plaintiff's motion therefor, nor does the record disclose that it was presented upon argument of the motion. No amendment of his pleadings to include a request for an accounting was ever sought by plaintiff. It appears that the attention of the trial court was never directed to this question either during or subsequent to trial, and that plaintiff raises the point for the first time in this appeal.
It is now too late for plaintiff to change his stance. A litigant is bound by the theory on which his case was submitted to the trial court. (In re Estate of Brown, 189 Kan. 193, 368 P.2d 27.) This court on appeal will not consider a case on a theory other than that adopted by the parties in the court below. (Potwin State Bank v. Ward, 183 Kan. 475, 327 P.2d 1091; Anderson v. Thomas, 184 Kan. 240, 336 P.2d 821.)
It was held in Insurance Co. v. Baer, 94 Kan. 777, 147 Pac. 840, that an issue not relied upon in the trial court will not be considered as an issue on appeal, and in the opinion is was stated:
In Collins v. Morris, 97 Kan. 264, 155 Pac. 51, this court had under consideration the effect of failure on appellant's part to include *39 in his motion for new trial rulings of the court below on which error was predicated. On this point the court said:
We have not failed to note plaintiff's conjecture that should the trial court's position be sustained, a subsequent accounting action between these parties may be barred under the rule of res judicata. It may well be that the doctrine can be invoked as to the fact of partnership, for that issue became directly involved during the trial. The rule is not applicable, however, to every issue incidentally touched or commented upon in a prior action. In Brinkerhoff v. Bank, supra, this court has said:
And in Columbian Title and Trust Co. v. City of Tribune, 133 Kan. 51, 298 Pac. 798, the court has held that matters which have been expressly reserved or excepted from a judgment are not res judicata in a subsequent action. The situation here would seem analogous.
Other matters raised by the appellant have been considered and found insufficient to affect the conclusions above reached.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.