Court Opinion

ID: 9588371
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:33:40.861612+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:40.637478
License: Public Domain

Thompson, J.,
dissenting.
From June 3, 1960, to June 16, 1960, in twenty-six separate transactions, New York Meat sold goods in the form of meat *117and meat products to El Raneo for which there was a balance due of $5,000. An employee of the buyer would place a verbal order with the seller. When the goods arrived at the buyer’s hotel an employee would sign an invoice provided by the seller indicating that the goods had been received as ordered. Each invoice was posted to a ledger maintained by the seller, and at the end of the month a statement was sent to the buyer. The seller’s ledger cards in evidence reflect an open account running from August 31, 1959, to December 12, 1960. The complaint was filed August 25, 1965.
This appears to be a common open account transaction for goods sold and delivered subject to the bar of limitations if action thereon is not commenced within four years. NRS 11.190(2) (a). In Stephens v. McCormack, 50 Nev. 383, 263 P. 774 (1928), this court considered the meaning of what is now NRS 11.190(1) (b) and approved the following language: “But a cause of action is not upon a contract founded upon an instrument in writing, within the meaning of the code, merely because it is in some way remotely or indirectly connected with such an instrument, or because the instrument would be a link in the chain of evidence establishing the cause of action. In order to be founded upon an instrument in writing, the instrument must itself contain a contract to do the thing for the nonperformance of which the action is brought.” Id. at 390. The invoices here involved are links in the chain of evidence establishing the cause of action and cannot qualify as instruments containing a contract “to do the thing for the nonperformance of which the action is brought.” Moreover, the Stephens decision flatly rejected the giving of any significance to the word “founded” as used in the statute. Id. at 389.1 perceive no reason why the reasoning of Stephens should not control the disposition of the instant matter. See also: Rudolph Bros. v. Husat, 187 N.E.2d 190 (C.A. Ohio 1961). In my view, today’s opinion in large measure nullifies NRS 11.190(2) (a). I would reverse.