Case Name: Cornelius W. Diggs v. Charles J. Ingersoll
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1903-03
Citations: 82 Miss. 493
Docket Number: 
Parties: Cornelius W. Diggs v. Charles J. Ingersoll.
Judges: 
Reporter: Mississippi Reports
Volume: 82
Pages: 493–494

Head Matter:
Cornelius W. Diggs v. Charles J. Ingersoll.
.Accounting. Reference. Misconduct of master. Electric methods.
“Where a master, appointed to state an account involving business transactions, covering a period of more than six years, ¡makes his report less than one day, and apparently within two- hours after the reference, his proceeding is too hasty to he productive of wholesome results, and his report should not he accepted' by the court in the absence of evidence that due care and deliberation Were given the subject.
From the chancery court of Issaquena county.
Hon. A. McC. Kimbrough, Chancellor.
Ingersoll, appellee, was complainant, and Diggs, appellant, was defendant, in the court below. From a decree in complainant’s favor defendant appealed to the supreme court. The opinion states all the facts necessary to its understanding.
Green é Green, for appellant.
Henry & Scudder, for appellee.
[The briefs of counsel were not with record when it reached the reporter’s hands.]

Opinion:
Whitfield, C. J.,
delivered the opinion of the court.
This case must be reversed in order that a proper accounting may be had. The reference to the master, the investigation— if it could be called an investigation — made by the master, his report, and the confirmation of his report, all occurred on the same day, and apparently within the space of a couple of hours, and yet the dealings covered a period of more than six years. The appellant avers that the rate of interest charged him was usurious, that the prices charged him for goods were extortionate, that he had been denied credits which he should have received, that he has not been fully credited with all payments made, and that the payments made were not credited to the proper debts. Without expressing any opinion on these various matters, it is perfectly clear that no investigation worthy of the name could have been made in the time given it in the court below. A full and complete investigation of all these matters should be made. Electric methods are not usually productive of wholesome results in judicial proceedings.
Reversed cmd remanded.