Dickerson v. Thomas

Citations

• 67 Miss. 777

Syllabus

<p>1. Cancellation. Accounting. Books. Evidence to contradict. Estimates.</p> <p>An uneducated negro filed a bill to cancel a conveyance of Ins plantation, made to a merchant in settlement of a large balance, claimed by the latter to be due upon a final settlement of mutual accounts covering a period of six years. He alleged fraud in its procurement and usury in the account. The conveyance was set aside and the account restated by a master. The complainant was allowed credit for a large amount of cotton not credited, the evidence to sustain this being the estimates of witnesses as to the yield of the place for each year, based on the acreage and general character of the crops as being good, fair, or bad etc., and statements that the cotton was for the most part delivered to defendant. ■Held, that such evidence was too indefinite and uncertain to falsify balances shown by the merchant’s books, and settlements which were made from time to time based on them and acquiesced in by the parties.</p> <p>2. Same. Landlord and tenant. Course of business.</p> <p>Where on such accounting it appears that the separate accounts of complainant’s tenants and croppers had been charged to his account and had been carried into the settlements and notes executed for the balances due, it was error to disallow such items for lack of positive evidence of a contract by complainant to pay them, it being shown that such charges were in keeping with the usual course of business between the land-owners and their tenants.</p> <p>3. Accounting. Reopening settled accounts. Burden of proof. Evidence.</p> <p>The burden of proof rests on the party seeking to reopen suoli an account, long ago closed by note, and upon which payments had been made,,to show errors or omissions by direct and specific evidence. It is not sufficient to raise a suspicion that the account is incorrect in certain particulars, but facts must be shown in the light of which the court may act with confidence and intelligence. Clay