Central Electric Co. v. Sprague Electric Co.

Citations

• 120 F. 925
• 57 C.C.A. 197
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4691

Syllabus

<p>1. Contracts — Debts of Third Person — Payment—Privity.</p> <p>An indirect interest in the performance of an undertaking by defendant to pay the debts of a third person does not constitute sufficient privity to entitle a creditor to maintain an action at law thereon.</p> <p>2. Federal Courts — Form of Action — Payment of Debt of Third Person</p> <p>—What Law Governs.</p> <p>Whether the remedy to enforce a contract for the payment of the obligations of a third person in the federal courts is by suit in equity or by action at law is dependent on the law of the forum.</p> <p>8. Same.</p> <p>Where a corporation, on purchasing the assets of another corporation, contracted to pay the latter’s debts, a creditor of the vendor corporation was entitled to sue the vendee at law to recover the debt.</p> <p>4. Same — Corporations—Evidence.</p> <p>Where, in an action by a creditor of a corporation which had transferred its assets to defendant, plaintiff claimed that defendant had contracted to pay the debts of the vendor, but the minutes of the resolution by defendant evidencing such agreement were not produced, and the only witness thereto testified that the minutes showed a transfer of the property, but that he was not certain as to the liabilities and obligations, except that defendant paid certain liabilities for goods purchased, the evidence was insufficient to establish the agreement</p> <p>5. Same — Best Evidence — Failure to Produce.</p> <p>Where plaintiff claimed that defendant corporation had agreed to pay the obligations of another corporation, whose assets defendant had acquired, the fact that defendant’s minutes showing such agreement were in another state did not relieve plaintiff from the duty to produce such minutes, or a certified copy thereof, as the best evidence of such agreement.</p> <p>6. Same — Statements of Officers.</p> <p>Statements of officers of a corporation that the company had agreed to pay the obligations of another corporation, whose assets it