Case Name: GEORGE W. WRIGHT vs. JAMES MOONEY
Court: Supreme Court of North Carolina
Jurisdiction: North Carolina
Decision Date: 1845-12
Citations: 6 Ired. 22
Docket Number: 
Parties: GEORGE W. WRIGHT vs. JAMES MOONEY.
Judges: 
Reporter: North Carolina Reports
Volume: 28
Pages: 22–23

Head Matter:
GEORGE W. WRIGHT vs. JAMES MOONEY.
A judgment in one Court is a set-off against an action of assumpsit in another Court.
Appeal from the Superior Court of Law of Haywood County, at Spring Term, 1845, his Honor Judge Manly presiding.
This was an action of assumpsit, upon an agreement to pay a certain sum per diem, for work performed' in building a mill; in which the defendant offered, as a set-off, the record of a j udgment, obtained by him against the plaintiff in Macon Superior Court. The legality of this set-off was denied, and the evidence objected to, but the Court over-ruled the objection, and admitted the evidence of the set-off.
After verdict, the plaintiff having failed in a motion for a new trial, and judgment being rendered against him, appealed to the Supreme Court.
Francis, for the plaintiff.
No Counsel-for the defendant.

Opinion:
Daniel, J.
Set-off is only allowed in actions of as*
sumpsit, debt and covenant, for the non-payment of money, and for which an action of debt or indebitatus as-sumpsit might be maintained; and the debts to be set off, must be due at the commencement of the action. Ba-bington on sets-off, 8. The only question made by the exception is, whether in assumpsit, pending in one Court, the defendant can set-off a judgment, recovered by him against the plaintiff in the Court of another County. — • There is no doubt that he may: for the debts are mutual, though of different dignity, and are within the words of the act.
Per Curiam. Judgment affirmed.