Court Opinion

ID: 9719532
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:55:27.357908+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:08.018379
License: Public Domain

FAUNTLEROY, Associate Judge,
dissenting:
I must respectfully dissent from the majority opinion. It appears that the trial court was correct in granting appellee’s motion for directed verdict after appellant’s opening statement and subsequent proffer.1
*971My disagreement with the majority is threefold:
I. The appellant, by taking a default judgment against appellee’s son, was precluded from proceeding against appellee.
II. The “leading object” exception to the Statute of Frauds has no applicability since appellee received no business or pecuniary advantage for his alleged promise.
III. The “Frow”2 rule is inapplicable because appellant requested and took a default judgment against appellee’s son.
Before considering these points, a further recital of pertinent parts of the record is warranted. At trial, appellant’s opening statement was essentially as follows:
“How this lawsuit started was this. There was a complaint filed in the court. The complainant essentially alleged that Mr. Hampton Ashley, the defendant, and his son, Eric Ashley, were obligated to Hudson, Leftwich, & Davenport. .
The services that were rendered in this incident were rendered as the result of representation in a criminal matter, [Yjour duty will be to decide by the preponderance of the evidence whether or not Mr. Hampton Ashley is obligated to the firm of Hudson & Leftwich for the fees which are prayed for in the complaint.
The complaint was answered by Mr. Hampton Ashley. Mr. Ashley denied that the money — that he owed the money to Hudson & Leftwich. Mr. Erie Ashley also filed an answer in this case but as His Honor has indicated to you earlier, there has been a judgment entered against Mr. Eric Ashley, so you will not be asked to weigh any evidence with respect to the amount due and owing by Mr. Eric Ashley in this case.
The evidence will show that on June 9, 1974, Mr. Willie Leftwich was initially approached by Mr. Hampton Ashley to represent his son, Eric, in the criminal matter. The evidence will further show that Mr. Leftwich had accepted the representation on behalf of Mr. Hampton Ashley and, at his request, did dispatch someone from his office to go down and enter an appearance in the criminal matter.
The evidence will further show that when the law firm of Hudson & Leftwich attempted to collect the money from Mr. Hampton Ashley, it was not forthcoming. Thus, we have this lawsuit which, as was indicated to you earlier, it will be up to you to decide.”
Following this opening statement, appel-lee moved for a directed verdict and counsel for appellant made the following additional proffer:
“The question as to whose credit was looked to when the contract was entered into, Your Honor, seems to me can clearly be cleared up right now. The evidence would probabl[y] tend to show that when the contract was entered into, none of the principles at the law firm even knew or had ever seen Mr. Eric Ashley; that they were in the company of Mr. Hampton Ashley and would just — and this is a suggestion on my part — would not agree at all to undertake such representation with a young, twenty-two-year-old individual.”
On the basis of above opening statement and bench proffer, the trial court granted appellee’s motion for a directed verdict.
I
The real problem in appellant’s case is that he took a default judgment against *972appellee’s son which precluded him from obtaining any relief against appellee. While the majority refers to appellant taking a default only against appellee’s son, a review of the record below discloses that at a Pre-Trial Conference, April 21, 1976, appellant requested and was granted a judgment in the amount of $2,284.20 against appellee’s son, and at the trial of this case on March 30, 1977, appellant referred to this judgment in his opening statement.
The majority does not dispute the above facts but instead treats the default judgment as a default only because of a claimed technical non-compliance with Rule 55(b)(2). This overlooks the fact that all of the participants in the trial below, appellant, appel-lee and the judge accepted the fact that appellant had been granted a default judgment against appellee’s son prior to trial. As the majority recognizes, appellee’s son is not a party to this appeal. Furthermore, neither appellant nor appellee claim the trial court erred by entering the default judgment.
It is well settled that an appellate court is precluded from passing on questions determined by the trial court, where no appeal is taken from the decision. See Murray v. Requardt, 180 Md. 245, 23 A.2d 697 (1942); Brooks v. Jensen, D.C.Mun.App., 73 A.2d 32 (1950). Each case must be decided on its own record. This court should not be concerned with extraneous matters merely for the purpose of supplying defects in this appeal. 5 C.J.S. Appeal and Error § 1481 (1955).
By recognizing the validity of the default judgment, which was granted at the request of appellant, the wisdom of the trial court’s ruling that the appellant could not establish an original promise against appel-lee can be clearly understood. To establish an original promise, appellant must show that the debt was created at the instance and for the benefit of the promisor. See Thomas v. Ehrmantraut, D.C.Mun.App., 111 A.2d 623 (1965). The rule is if the credit is given to the third person to any extent, so that he is in any degree independently and originally liable, the oral promise is collateral and within the Statute of Frauds, (D.C. Code § 28-3502). Symons v. Burton, 83 Ind.App. 631, 149 N.E. 460 (App.Ct.Ind. 1925); Williams v. Auten, 62 Neb. 832, 87 N.W. 1061 (1901); Webb v. Hawkins Lumber, 101 Ala. 630, 14 So. 407 (1893); Swarens v. Pfnisel, 324 Mo. 1245, 26 S.W.2d 951 (1930). See also, Kerner v. Eastern Dispensary & Casualty Hospital, 214 Md. 375, 135 A.2d 303 (1957).
In Mueller v. Woodson, 198 S.W. 1134 (K.C.Ct.App.Mo.1917), an appeal was taken by the appellant father after a trial was completed and a judgment entered against him. The facts were that the father assured a merchant that he (appellant) would “take care of” the cost of any clothing that the merchant supplied his son. When the son failed to pay the bill, the merchant sued the father and the son, and secured a judgment against both of them. In reversing the judgment entered against the father, the appellate court based its decision entirely upon a consideration of the evidence offered by the merchant. The court concluded that the merchant could not have relied upon the credit of the father, since he had not only charged the goods to the son, but also claimed and obtained judgment against him.
In another Missouri case, Swarens v. Pfnisel, supra, the appellee sued the injured person and the cousin of the injured person for the value of medical services rendered to the injured person. Judgments were taken against both defendants. Plaintiff alleged that the cousin agreed to pay the medical bill. The Court, in responding to the cousin’s appeal stated:
“Ordinarily the question as to whom the credit was given is one for the jury and although plaintiff’s books charged [the injured] alone for the service rendered, this might not be controlling as a matter of law, but the fact that plaintiff sued both the [the injured person and the cousin], alleging that he rendered services at the special instance and request of both defendants and prayed judgment against both defendants and obtained judgment against them, the *973judgment against [the injured person] having become a final judgment, show beyond any question that some credit was given [the injured person].” Id., 26 S.W.2d at 953.
In Webb v. Hawkins Lumber Co., supra, appellee sued appellant and one Vann on an account for lumber sold. Vann defaulted and judgment was entered against him, and at trial judgment was also entered against appellant. The facts were that appellee shipped lumber to Vann according to appellant’s directions, after appellant agreed he would guarantee the bill and would pay for the lumber. The court concluded that the judgment against appellant should be reversed. It observed that “plaintiff testified that he looked to both Vann and appellant for payment. [T]his is relieved from all doubt by the fact that he has sued them both, and recovered a judgment against both.” Id., 14 So. at 408. The court went on to state the rule of law “that where any credit is extended to the party to whom the consideration moves, — where he is looked to at all for payment, though the other party may be in much greater degree relied on,— that debt is his, and the other party’s obligation is that of guarantor, which to be binding must be in writing. 8 Amer. & Eng. Enc. Law, page 674, note 6; Id. pp. 678, 679, notes; Foster v. Napier, 74 Ala. 393; Boykin v. Dohlonde, 37 Ala. 577; Marx v. Bell, 48 Ala. 497; Clark v. Jones, 87 Ala. 474, 6 So. 362.” Id., 14 So. at 408.
Symons v. Burton, supra, provides a further application of the general rule and is similar to the instant case. In Symons, an action was brought against a promisor and a third party to recover on an account for merchandise furnished to the third party. The complaint alleged that the defendants were “separately and severally” liable to appellee for goods sold and delivered to them at their instance and request. The third party defaulted. The trial court rendered judgment against both defendants. On appeal, an en banc court reversed the judgment against the promisor and held that since appellee sued the third party and took judgment against him, the record conclusively showed that the third party was primarily liable and the promisor’s agreement was collateral and within the Statute of Frauds.
Also, the Symons case quoted at length Welch v. Marvin, 36 Mich. 59 (1877), a case in which Welch promised Marvin that he would pay for the meat that Marvin furnished Cook, a third party. In Welch, the lower court refused to instruct the jury that:
“to make Welch legally liable, they must also find that Marvin thereupon absolutely discharged Cook from liability, and looked only to Welch for pay.”
In declaring the trial court’s refusal to give the instruction error, the court noted:
“Under no theory of this case could Cook and Welch both be responsible to plaintiff, severally at his option. If Cook was liable for the meats furnished after the arrangement with Welch was made, then clearly Welch’s liability could not be an original one. It is equally clear that if Welch’s promise was an original promise, and the debt his debt, then Cook could not be held liable thereon.”
With guidance from the aforementioned cases, it is clear that when appellant obtained the default judgment against appellee’s son, every element of doubt as to whom the credit was extended vanished.
Accordingly, the appellant, by taking a default judgment against appellee’s son, was precluded from proceeding against ap-pellee.
II
Next, the majority has misapplied the “leading object rule,” citing Pravel, Wilson & Matthews v. Voss, 471 F.2d 1186 (5th Cir. 1973) as authority for its application.
The Pravel case was an action by a law firm against the president of a corporation to recover the reasonable value of legal services to the corporation in another law suit. Judgment was rendered for the law firm and the corporate president appealed. On appeal the court applying Texas law held that the corporate president’s repeated *974promises that he would personally pay the legal fees was enforceable notwithstanding the Statute of Frauds where his “leading object” in making the promise was to secure a direct, personal benefit to himself (i. e., to protect his share in the contemplated recovery). Even so, some Texas cases have refused to apply the “leading object” exception when the promisor was a stockholder of the corporation whose debt was guaranteed, when the only benefit to him is the continued prosperity of the corporation which would benefit all stockholders. South Spindletop Oil and Development Co. v. Toney, 15 S.W.2d 688 (Tex.Civ.App. Beaumont 1929); C. F. Cooper Petroleum v. La-Gloria Oil & Gas Co., 436 S.W.2d 889 (Tex.1969).
The “leading object” rule may be stated as follows:
Whenever the main purpose and object of the promisor is not to answer for another, but to subserve some pecuniary or business purpose of his own, involving either a benefit to himself, or damage to the other contracting party, his promise is not within the statute, although it may be in form a promise to pay the debt of another, and although the performance of it may incidentally have the effect of extinguishing the liability. Emerson v. Slater, 22 How. 28, 43, 16 L.Ed. 360 (1859).
It is well to note that defendant in the Emerson case was a large stockholder in the corporation, and holder of the bonds of the company which had been mortgaged. This “leading object rule” was also followed in the case of Jefferson-Travis, Inc. v. Giant Eagle Markets, Inc., 3 Cir., 393 F.2d 426, citing with approval the following cases: Eastern Wood Products Co. v. Metz, 370 Pa. 636, 89 A.2d 327 (1952); City of Philadelphia v. Rosins Parking Lots, 358 Pa. 174, 56 A.2d 207 (1948); Kampman v. Pittsburgh Contracting & Engineering Co., 316 Pa. 502, 175 A.2d 396, 99 A.L.R. 76 (1934); Nugent v. Wolfe, 111 Pa. 471, 4 A. 15 (1886); Frumkin v. Mayer, 139 Pa.Super. 139, 11 A.2d 767 (1940).
All of the cases cited above stand for the principle that the “leading object” exception to the Statute of Frauds is only applied where the promisor receives some pecuniary or business advantage.
Here the facts are clear that appellee received no pecuniary or business advantage from his alleged promise. Therefore the “leading object” exception has no application as the majority has held.
Ill
Lastly, the majority asserts that the trial court should have followed the procedure first set out in the case of Frow v. De La Vega, 82 U.S. (15 Wall.) 552, 554, 21 L.Ed. 60 (1872). In Frow, the defendants were all jointly charged in a civil case with conspiracy to defraud the complainant of certain land, one of the defendants defaulted and upon the entry of a default judgment, this defendant appealed. In the meantime, the lower court proceeded to trial against the remaining joint defendants, at the conclusion of which it found in favor of the defendants and against the complainant. Thus the trial court had, with reference to the land in question, granted a judgment in favor of the complainant as to one defaulting defendant and ruled against the complainant as to the contesting defendants.
The Supreme Court in stating the Frow rule said:
The true mode of proceeding where a bill makes a joint charge against several defendants, and one of them makes default, is simply to enter a default and a formal decree pro confesso against him, and proceed with the cause upon the answers of the other defendants. The defaulting defendant has merely lost his standing in court. He will not be entitled to service of notices in the cause, nor to appeal in it in any way. He can adduce no evidence; he cannot be heard at the final hearing. But if the suit should be decided against the complainant on the merits, the bill will be dismissed as to all the defendants alike — the defaulter as well as the others. If it be decided in the complainant’s favor, he will then be entitled to a final decree against all. But a final decree on the merits against the defaulting defend*975ant alone, pending the continuance of the cause, would be incongruous and illegal. 82 U.S. at 554.
While the above rule is necessary and convenient where defendants are charged with being jointly liable, the rule has no applicability to cases where the law is well settled that only one of the defendants could be held ultimately liable.
The majority would apply this rule to the instant case on facts which show that the appellant cannot recover under any circumstances, since he requested and was granted a default judgment against appellee’s son. The difference between Frow and the instant case is that in Frow the taking of a default judgment against a jointly charged defendant did not extinguish the liability of the remaining defendants and so the case could proceed to trial against them.
In the present case, the entry of the default judgment against appellee’s son prevents appellant from proceeding to recover against appellee.
Appellant in his opening statement stated to the court and jury that he had obtained a judgment against appellee’s son, and the record discloses that at the pre-trial conference of the case, appellant requested and obtained the default judgment. Of course the trial court could have judicially noticed this judgment and granted the directed verdict even if appellee had not requested it.
As the Supreme Court said in the case of Oscanyan v. W. R. Arms Co., 103 U.S. 261, 26 L.Ed. 539,
In the trial of a cause, the admissions of counsel as to matters to be proved, are constantly received and acted upon. They may dispense with proof of facts for which witnesses would otherwise be called. They may limit the demand made or the set-off claimed. Indeed, any fact bearing upon the issues involved, admitted by counsel, may be the ground of the court’s procedure, equally as if established by the clearest proof; and if, in the progress of a trial, either by such admission of proof, a fact is developed which must necessarily put an end to the action, the court may, upon its own motion or that of counsel, act upon it and close the case. 103 U.S. at 263.
If appellant, for any reason, preferred a judgment against appellee, the wisest procedure would have been for appellant’s counsel to have requested the court to note the default of appellee’s son, but to withhold its entry until the conclusion of the trial in case his request for judgment against appellee was denied. Upon a denial by the court or jury of his claim against the appellee, then he could have requested the court to enter a judgment against appellee’s son. If at trial he had prevailed against appellee, then he would not have been entitled to judgment against appellee’s son, and the case would have had to be dismissed against the defaulting son. The appellant for reasons of his own did not proceed in this manner.
For reasons stated above, it appears the trial court was clearly justified in terminating the proceedings by granting appellee’s Motion for a Directed Verdict.
I would therefore affirm the Judgment of the court below.

. Although the majority relies on Best v. District of Columbia, 291 U.S. 411, 54 S.Ct. 487, 78 L.Ed. 882 (1934) and Cook v. Safeway Stores, Inc., D.C.App., 354 A.2d 507, 508 (1976) as authority that a trial judge has the power to direct a verdict at the close of an opening statement, Oscanyan v. Winchester Repeating Arms Co., 103 U.S. 261, 263, 26 L.Ed. 539, 541 (1881) should not be overlooked as the leading authority for that principle in the present case.
*971The Oscanyan case, like the matter at hand, involved a contract dispute and not the many factual variables inherent in Best, a wrongful death action, and Cook, a personal injury suit. The rule to be extracted from Oscanyan is clear: if plaintiffs opening statement shows that he cannot recover, then before granting the motion for directed verdict, the plaintiff should be given an opportunity to further explain or qualify his statement. If after such further explanation, it should appear that plaintiff cannot recover, then the trial court should not hesitate to grant the motion for directed verdict. It was this procedure that was followed by the trial court in the instant case.

. Frow v. De La Vega, 82 U.S. (15 Wall.) 552, 554, 21 L.Ed. 60 (1872).