Case Name: MURRAY v. ESTES et al.
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1897-06-11
Citations: 45 N.Y.S. 1002
Docket Number: 
Parties: MURRAY v. ESTES et al.
Judges: 
Reporter: West's New York Supplement
Volume: 45
Pages: 1002–1005

Head Matter:
MURRAY v. ESTES et al.
(Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.
June 11, 1897.)
Money Paid for Use of Another—Pleading.
A complaint for money paid by plaintiff’s assignor at the request of defendants alleged that defendants, as trustees of a church, made a contract for the construction of a church building; that the contract provided that defendants, representing the church, should pay all bills for lumber, and that such payments should be deducted from money due the contractor; that one M. furnished lumber on the order of the contractor; and that plaintiff’s assignor paid the bill therefor at defendant’s request. Held, that the complaint stated, by necessary inference, that the payment by plaintiff's assignor was for defendants’ use.
Ingraham, J., dissenting.
Appeal from special term, New York county.
Action by John R. Murray against Elihu B. Estes and others to recover money paid by the John R. Anderson Company, plaintiff’s assignor, at the request of defendants, for lumber furnished by McKintosh & Co. for the construction of the Windsor Terrace Methodist- Episcopal Church, of which defendants were trustees. From an interlocutory judgment sustaining the demurrer of defendants Estes and Griffiths to the complaint, plaintiff appeals.
Reversed.
Argued before RUMSEY, PATTERSON, O’BRIEN, INGRAHAM, and PARKER, JJ.
Mortimer M. Menken, for appellant.
■ Arthur C. Rounds, for respondents.

Opinion:
PARKER, J.
The demurrer was sustained at special term upon the ground that it was not alleged in the complaint that the money which was paid by the plaintiff at the request of the defendants was for the defendants' use. It is true that the complaint does not state in so many words that it was for the defendants' use, but the facts stated require such an inference. The fourth paragraph of the complaint alleges that "John R. Anderson & Co., at the special instance and request of these defendants, paid the sum of $500 to the said McKintosh & Co., and received from them an assignment of their aforesaid claim against these defendants." The only element lacking in the statement of a cause of action for money paid by a plaintiff to a defendant's use and at his request is an assertion that such payment was for the use of the defendant. We are therefore to examine the other allegations in the complaint for the purpose of ascertaining whether the facts therein alleged require the inference that such payment was for the use of the defendants. From the first paragraph of the complaint we learn that the defendants were the trustees of the Windsor Terrace Methodist Episcopal Church of Flatbush, Long Island, and that they severally and individually executed a contract with the Weedon Plan & Construction Company, of the city of New York, whereby said company was to construct for them a church building; and that the contract provided, among other things:
"That all bills for timber and lumber are to be paid by the said trustees representing the said church, and all said bills are to be held by them as vouchers that the said timber and lumber is free from any lien or incumbrance. The amounts of such bills are to be deducted from the payments due the Weedon Plan & Construction Company."
The third paragraph alleges that the firm of McKintosh & Co. delivered and furnished for use in the construction of the church,, upon the order of the Weedon Plan & Construction Company, timber and lumber to the amount of $500, and it was this $500 which J. R Anderson & Co. paid at the request of the defendants. It appears then that under the contract made with the Weedon Plan & Construction Company, the defendants had obligated themselves to pay for all the timber and lumber necessary to be used in the construction of the church; that the Weedon Plan & Construction Company did order from McKintosh & Co. for such purpose timber and lumber of the value of $500, and such sum, under their contract, the defendants were obligated to pay. McKintosh & Co. could not have collected it of the defendants, because the contract was not made between them and the defendants, nor were they privies to the contract in any way. But the Weedon Plan & Construction Company, who ordered the timber and lumber of McKintosh & Co., could, under their contract with these defendants, compel them to pay for it; and thus it is made to appear from the facts alleged that the $500 which John B. Anderson & Co. paid to McKintosh & Co. was in payment for timber and lumber for which the defendants were bound to pay, and therefore such payment was for the use and benefit of the defendants.
The interlocutory judgment sustaining the demurrer should be reversed, with costs, and the defendants permitted to answer within 20 days upon payment of costs in this court and in the court below.
RUMSEY, PATTERSON, and O'BRIEN, JJ.. concur.