The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-05-28
THE COURTS.
IMPORTANT TO MERCHANTS.
A Husbands Liability for His
Wife's Purchases.
m REAL COST or Tag INV COURT HOUSE

- the latter part Of last year Moses strasburger, or
sashsr biz wife in his name, purchased OF A. !.
Stewart Co Foods TO the value OF 81 3o4 -. These
goods ware delivered At Mr. s:rasburgers residence,
and the bill sent TO his place of business for pay
mont bat was not paid. A short time previous to
these purchases SsrasburEer placed upon record
second mortgages all his real estate in the CITY Of
New York, and removed the proceeds shereof 70 81
Louis, No, in the month Of October last On tho
13.h day OF December, 1876. strasburger made
general assignment Tor the pretended benefit OF hts
creditors, which assignment was ned on tho ldsh Of
that month. and his place Of business closed. short
time previous the purchase OF the goods In ques-
ton the defendant made large purchases Of other
merchants In New York, for which no aitcrward
indicted by tho Grand Jury for obtaining
The goods under false pretenccs After going throug
the lower courts the suit brought BY A.
cover the amount Of his bill reached, on
appeal, the Supreme Court, General Term The
points brought forward BY A. T. Stewart Co. through
insovent It the time he purchased the goods and IN
conceaing his insolvency guilty Of fraud that the
goods were purchased without the intent 70 pay for
Them, and that although It was Strasburger's wifo
who bought the goods the subsequent delivery 1t his
house and his acceptance Of me same placed MN y. ~
goods himself Strssburgcrs plea was that he had
never purchased anything Of A. 7. Stewart y Co,
been in the habit OF buying what she wanted OF the arm
for the past twenty years. and that those bills which
she failed pay herself the no had ps,d
sisher BY cash check. In the subsequent develop
mcnn OF tho case II was ascertained, ~
alleged tia. s.rsseSrgsr BY false rsprcssn I
the American Clock Company, and from the firm Of
Robbins 4 Appleton, No Bond street. watches and
scoordins % the sworn s,sssmen, o. Mr. D. F. Apple
ton $40 484 70, with interest," still remains due De-
Spe all these facts Judge Lawrence vacated the order
Of arrest against Srasburger the ground that he did
not personally purchase he goods, and made no repre-
Dentauon to his responsibility An appeal was
taken from this decision Of Judge Lawrence TO tho
General Term. That Court, Judge Daniels writing the
opinion, has just rendered Its opinion reversing tho
order The case Is Of great interest to merchants
Tho General Term hold that Strasbuger was liable for
the purchases OF his wife, and the probability is that
criminal prosecutions will be instituted against him.
COST OF THE NEW COURT HOUSE.
salt presenting some distinctly variable points
from tho Of ordinary law suits has been in rog
during the past weeks before Judge Barrett
holding supreme Court, Circuit The facts and the
progress Of the have from time time been given
In the HERALD, and the result, which has been looked
for with good deal Of interest," finally reached
yesterday In the verdict OF the jury The plaintiff
The widow and exccutrix OF John Kellum the architect
and brought suit the OF $780, 000 architects
fees upon tho construction of the County Court House.
Tho contract made In 1868 with the Board OF Su-
pervisors provided that the architect should be
paid three per cent upon the entire cost
Of the building Tho plaintiff made prma
ace by using the vouchers and books Of the city,
showing that the entire payments the building had
about S. COO O00 throwing upon the Coun-
sci TO the Corporation the responsibility Of proving
what portion OF this amount fraudulent The novel
method adopted by tho latter-which probably
The only method which could have been adopted to de-
feat the plaintiffs claimof taking tue building 1t
stands, employing an engineer to measure up all The
quantities in the building they actually exist pro-
ducng experts in every branch OF the work gong into
constructIon-musons, stone cutters, bricklayers,
plumbers, cabinet makers aud the Iike-to prove what
the work should have properly cost Tho astonishing
result arrived ut that allowing the contract prices
for all the material found In the building according
the measurement OF quantities. and allowing proper
prices for all the work. even liberal prices,
the building should not have cost over
e2S00000 This method of dealing with the problem
engineer OF this city IL criticised by the plaintiffs
COUNSEL but the jury allowed, under the Judge 3
charge, TO deal with II and give II such weight they
deemed IL entitled to- further issue was raised by
tho Corporation Counsel that In certain particulars
there very extravngant and wasteiu use Of ma
terias in the building, amounting altogether testified
10 BY witnesses produced the part Of the city,
The jury under charge from Judge Barrett At half
past eleven OF Friday. The Judge charged Thorn with
regard to certain bill, amounting to about $26 900
by the Board Of Supervisors In 1862 which
, pnrt OF the plaintiffs claim that such audit was
hnality that portion Of the claim. The jury re-
NAMED out about thirteen hours, when they finally
agreed on verdict for the city. Mr. John E. Parsons
Whitney and Francis |. Stetson for the city.
SUMMARY OF LAW CASES.