Langdon v. Hughes
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Contract for the price of goods sold and delivered. Writ dated December 7, 1868. The items of an account annexed to the third count of the declaration, sixty-seven in number, all bore date between May 30 and October 17, 1867, and were alleged to have been “ contracted by Patrick Hughes and John Hughes, Jr., sons of the defendant, who were released therefrom and said account transferred and charged to the defendant at his request by the plaintiff.”
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Contract for the price of goods sold and delivered. Writ dated December 7, 1868. The items of an account annexed to the third count of the declaration, sixty-seven in number, all bore date between May 30 and October 17, 1867, and were alleged to have been “ contracted by Patrick Hughes and John Hughes, Jr., sons of the defendant, who were released therefrom and said account transferred and charged to the defendant at his request by the plaintiff.” At the hearing before an auditor to whom the case was referred, it appeared, upon the production of the plaintiff’s books of account, that the…
1Opinion of the CourtAmes, J.
It has often been decided that charges in a book of accounts are not written contracts, but the private memoranda of the party, and as such open to explanation. James v. Spaulding, 4 Gray, 451. Banfield v. Whipple, 10 Allen, 27. The plaintiff therefore had a right to account for the fact that the books appeared to be kept in the name of himself and another person, by showing that an intended partnership with that person had never gone into effect, and that he was himself the sole owner of the goods, charged in the account. Burton had never fulfilled the condition on which he was to become a…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Furbish v. GoodnowMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1867
3Cited by4 opinions
- Colpitts v. L. C. Fisher Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1935
- Pettey v. BenoitMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1906
- Briscoe v. EckleyMichigan Supreme Court · 1876
- Hill v. GratMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1923