Burns v. Gulf Oil Corporation

The record does not disclose the ground on which plaintiff’s demurrer ore tenus was interposed or sustained. So far as appears, it was directed to Gulf’s three causes of action, collectively. The question debated here, and presumably in the court below, is whether Gulf’s causes of action are permissible counterclaims under G.S. 1-137. This opinion deals solely with that question.

Under G.S. 1-137, “A cause of action arising out of the contract or transaction set forth in the complaint as the foundation of the plaintiff’s claim, or connected with the subject of the action,” in favor of a…