Court Opinion

ID: 3407168
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-05 19:23:10.360738+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:47:40.747585
License: Public Domain

I think the evidence demanded a finding for the defendant for the $117.18, the amount of one half the tobacco penalty. I concur in the judgment with the above exception, but not in all of the reasons assigned for the rulings. There was introduced in evidence a receipt given by W. W. Jones to the plaintiff dated September 3, 1946, as follows:

     "Kerosene at Woodrows .................... $  3.15
     Josh .....................................  110.00
     Tankage ..................................    6.25
     Labor shaking peanuts ....................   30.00
 *Page 798 
     Cash .....................................   15.00
     Penalty on tob. ..........................  117.18
     Peanuts hauling and picking ..............   30.87
                                                -------
                                                $312.45
     Peanuts $560.03 — 1/2 .................... $280.01
                                                -------
                                                $ 32.44
     Sept. 3, 1946 account
       Paid in full except hogs
                                    W. W. Jones."

The defendant testified as follows concerning the above receipt: "That paper is a paper where I paid him in full for tankage and one thing and the other, it is signed and paid in full. I had a settlement. . . I have a receipt here where they settled up with me and I paid them in full. They wanted to hold my tobacco penalty out on me and he told me to get it in writing so I got this receipt marked paid in full. I accepted that receipt, yes, sir. You see it included that penalty on tobacco of $117.18. As to whether or not I acknowledged that the payment on tobacco penalty was paid in full, yes, I paid them for it. I paid them the penalty, yes, sir. Mr. Neville told me to go ahead and pay it and get him to sign it paid in full." While it is true that the defendant denied that he agreed to pay part of the tobacco penalty, when he entered into a settlement agreement with Mr. Jones he was and is bound by it. The defendant accepted a binding receipt from Mr. Jones and it was also binding on the defendant as to every item shown thereon. There is no evidence that the defendant was induced to accept the receipt through fraud or duress and there is no evidence of mistake and no effort to reform the receipt. The defendant testified that his lawyer told him to pay the penalty and get a receipt. What his lawyer evidently told him was to get a statement of his account showing that the Joneses had charged him with the tobacco penalty. The making of the settlement in which the defendant received credits which bound the Joneses amounts to the defendant's paying the tobacco penalty in cash with knowledge of all the facts. I think $117.18 ought to be written off the verdict and judgment, or the case reversed. *Page 799