Court Opinion

ID: 9672970
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:03:38.267607+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:19.457763
License: Public Domain

COLEMAN, Justice
(dissenting).
I concur in the holding that the ruling of the circuit court which granted the motion to quash may be reviewed by mandamus.
I do not concur in the holding that the defendant Dr. J. B. King was not doing business in Alabama within the meaning of the statute which appears in 1955 Cumulative Pocket Parts of the Code of 1940 as *705§ 199(1) of Title 7. Reference is there made to the Acts of the Legislature: 1949, page 154; 1951, page 976; and 1953, page 347.
It may well be that the men who were engaged in taking orders for “pedolatum deals” were not servants of Dr. King so as to make him liable for their torts under the doctrine of respondeat superior. That such men were agents, however, appears to me as the correct conclusion to be drawn from the depositions, particularly from that of Henry W. Holland who testified that he had been engaged in selling pedolatum. Holland deposed as follows:
“Q. What sort of record was kept of the products that you would take with you? A. The number of dozens was entered into a ledger book, as to the number I took.
“Q. Whose ledger book was that? A. Dr. King’s ledger book.
“Q. Does he have that ledger book in his possession? A. He does
“Q. This ledger book, what was its general title? Did it have any name that applied to it? A. I don’t believe it does have any title. It is a very simple thing, shows my name at the top of the page with the number of pedolatums that I have taken from Dr. King and the number that I have accounted for.
“Q. What did you do with the ones that you did not account for — remit to Dr. King? A. I haven’t missed accounting for any. I always account for them.
“Q. In other words, if you sold them, you turned the money over to Dr. King? A. That’s right.
“Q. Did you ever use any of them or portions of them for demonstrations, where you didn’t have to pay for them?
A. No.
“Q. In other words, every jar that you took had to be paid for ? A. That’s right.
“Q. And has been paid for? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Did you deliver any of these where you sold them on a charge basis —did you deliver any of that supply? A. I believe I have.
“Q. In other words, assume I am a retail druggist in the state of Alabama, and you- — -whom you think is a reputable druggist, and you sell me a dozen jars, and I want them charged, I sign the order blank and you deliver the dozen jars and then Dr. King would bill me; is that the way it worked? A. That’s right, yes, sir.
“Q. So that Dr. King would get paid for the supply that you would have and which he had not shipped, but which you carried into Alabama, he would get paid either by your making cash sales or remitting to him or by virtue of his being paid in due course by charging the individual druggist?
A. Sir, I paid for the stocks that I had with me.
“Q. You paid for the stock that you carried with you? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. How would you get reimbursed then for those that were given to druggists and were charged on a charge account? Would Dr. King reimburse you then, or give you credit for it?
A. Dr. King reimbursed me; would give me credit for that.”
Dr. King testified that the men selling pedolatum had purchased it from him, but the evidence clearly shows that orders were sent in by the men engaged in selling and were charged against the purchaser who later paid to Dr. King, either directly or through one of the men who made collections. The record shows that five retail drugstores in Tuscalosa bought pedolatum at least one time in the year *7061958. As I read the record, the men selling pedolatum were agents authorized to sell for Dr. King in Alabama and, within the meaning of § 199(1), Title 7, Code 1940, as amended, and under the doctrine of the later federal cases, Dr. King was subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Alabama. Boyd v. Warren Paint & Color Co., 254 Ala. 687, 49 So.2d 559.