Levine v. Chambers

³³⁹ Bjkiscoe, Jl, delivered the opinion of the Court. This suit was originally instituted in the Baltimore City Court, on the 9th day of May, 1919, but was subsequently removed to the Superior Court of Baltimore City and, after trial in the last named court, resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff for the sum of $1,784.00. From a judgment on this verdict, the defendant has taken this appeal. The record contains seven exceptions.

One of these relates to the rulings of the court on the prayers, and six to the rulings on the evidence. The plaintiff offered one prayer, which was granted. The defendant presented sixteen prayers, and of these the fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth and eleventh were granted and the first, second, third, fourth, sixth, tenth, twelfth and thirteenth were refused. The appellant states in his brief that all of the exceptions are based upon the same propositions of law, and except as hearing thereon, the six exceptions as to the evidence are not pressed.

The suit was brought to recover the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, the alleged purchase price of three- thousand dollars par value of the stock of the Now Windsor Hotel Company, under the circumstances which will he hereafter more- fully stated. The declaration contains seven counts. The seventh amended count sets out the cause of action and is as follows: “And for that the Windsor Hotel Company, of which the defendant, Abraham H. Levine, was treasurer, was indebted unto the plaintiff, and that on or about May 28th, 1918, the defendant personally agreed with the plaintiff to liquidate the balance of the plaintiff’s account against the said Windsor Hotel Company in the following manner: That there should he paid to Mm, the plaintiff, $1,000.00 in cash, and there should be delivered to Mm six promissory notes of the said Windsor Hotel Company, three of them to be endorsed by the defendant and three by one; A. J. Fink; and that the defendant was to purchase nidi ³⁴⁰ vidually tlie stock of the Windsor Hotel Company amounting to $3,000.00 par value, which was to he issued in the name of the plaintiff hy the said Windsor Hotel Company (as part payment of his account against the said hotel company) for the sum of $1,500.00, said $1,500.00 to he evidenced by an individual promissory note of the defendant for ninety days, with the privilege to the defendant to renew the same every ninety days upon the curtailment of not less than 15%, said note to be delivered by the defendant to the plaintiff at the time the said six notes of the said Windsor Hotel Company should be taken up and paid; that the said defendant did pay his part of the $1,000.00 theretofore promised to be paid to the plaintiff, and did deliver to the plaintiff said six promissory notes of the Windsor Hotel Company, three of which were endorsed by the defendant and three by A. J. Eink, as a part performance of his contract, but has failed and neglected to deliver to the plaintiff his promissory note for $1,500.00 for the said $3,000.00 par value of the stock of the said Windsor Hotel Conw pany, as the defendant agreed to do, although the plaintiff has often requested the defendant to complete the performance of his agreement.” The facts of the case, as disclosed by the record, appear to be as follows: The plaintiff is in the decorating and painting” business and, some time in the year 1918, entered into an agreement for the painting and'decoration of Mount Holly Inn, a hotel located in the suburbs of Baltimore City. The defendant is engaged in the clothing business in Baltimore City, and was the treasurer of the Windsor Hotel Company, the owner of Mount Holly Inn, and a stockholder in that company.

It appears that, at the time of the completion of the work on the hotel, the Windsor Hotel Company was indebted to the plaintiff in the sum of $8,000, and under the terms of a final agreement of settlement, as stated in the amended decía ³⁴¹ ration, tlic defendant was to pureliase tlie stock of the Windsor Hotel Company to 1he amount of $3,000 par value, as part payment of his account against the hotel company, for the sum of $1,500, and to deliver to the plaintiff his promissory note for this sum, for the stock, as part performance of his contract. And this suit is "brought on that part of the-alleged agreement of the defendant to purchase the stock, and. to give his note for the purchase price, as. will appear from the plaintiff’s bill of particulars, filed to the first six counts of the declaration and as sot out in the seventh amended count of the declaration. The first, second, third and fourth exceptions present the rulings, of the court, on objection by the defendant to the admissibility of certain letters written by Messrs. Karr and M’ullikin containing and setting forth the terms of the contract.

This evidence was