Court Opinion

ID: 9827094
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 17:09:39.594599+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:22.974096
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
We supplement and correct our original opinion with the following additional fact finding's:
(a) From December 6, 1910, to December 31, 1915, appellees kept the accounts of the venture. The record does not disclose that during that period any of these accounts were kept by appellants. The proof shows without dispute that beginning January 1, 1916, the number of accounts of the venture was increased, that appellees kept all of these accounts and appellants kept the five corresponding active accounts, and this practice was followed until December 31, 1921, at which time all of the accounts were consolidated into a single account, and thereafter until the end of the venture both appellants and appellees kept this account on their own books and kept the accounts accurately in balance by monthly interchange of detailed statements.
(b) After the consolidation of the accounts as of date December 31, 1921, the parties did not formally enter upon the books of the venture any interest charges. The following is the explanation for this: At the time the consolidated account was agreed to and entered on the books, the parties were of *134the opinion that the venture would never pay the amounts then due, even if no further intérest was charged. It was for this reason that the parties, on Mr. Dean’s advice, omitted to charge on the books the $78,420.-84 as interest on country real estate timber. The letter of March 21, 1925, written by Mr. Ford, however, shows clearly that he fully understood that, while interest was not being entered on the books, under the agreement of the parties they had the right to enter it’if the venture earned enough to pay it. Therefore, when appellees were called upon to account, they stated the account as shown on the books, except that appropriate interest entries were made in accordance with the prior agreements, and the trial court found that the charging of interest under the circumstances was proper.
(c) While on the witness stand Mr. Ford testified that he had protested the interest charges, though the testimony as a whole, raised against him the issue that he had made no such protest. It was this fact issue that we had in mind in our original opinion where we found that Mr. Ford “admitted that he never protested against the interest charges” ; also we had reference to the fact issue upon the whole record where we found that neither the lumber company nor any one for it made any protest against the statement rendered as of February 7, 1922, showing compound interest charges; also, if there is any testimony that Mr. Ford protested the interest charges at the time of the consolidation, on the record as a whole, this issue should be found against him.
(d) Appellants criticize the conclusion in the original opinion that “we find nothing in the record even suggesting that Mr. Ford dealt with this account in the belief that on a final settlement compound interest on the 1910 contract would be taken out of the account.” If, on the whole record, this issue was raised in Mr. Ford’s favor, the record supports a conclusion against him on this issue.
(e) The money, if any, stolen by the employees of the lumber company, was of such insignificant amount that we withdraw our conclusion on that issue.
(f) Mrs. Gibbs was not a party to the. contract of April 25, 1918, but appellees’ interest in that contract was represented by Gibbs Bros. & Co. *
(g) Appellants insist that there is no evidence that A. L. Black was a director of the lumber company on the 25th of April, 1918; that prior to that date he had been a director but had sold out his stock in the lumber company and was no longer a director, or even a stockholder. On this statement by appellants, which has not been controverted by appellees, we find that A. B. Black was not a director on April 25, 1918.
Appellees have also filed a motion for rehearing, which has had our most careful consideration. Except in the respects indicated above on appellants’ motion to supplement and correct our conclusions of fact, the motions for rehearing by both parties are in all things overruled.