Farney v. Hauser

Citations

• 109 Kan. 75
• 198 P. 178
• 1921 Kan. LEXIS 80

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Partnership — Grain Elevator Business — One Partner May Contract With Partnership as Ordinary Customer. One of several partners in a business firm may contract -with the partnership as an ordinary customer, and in the latter capacity he is entitled to his due precisely as an outsider, although the mode of collecting his due.by legal process is by an accounting and dissolution of the partnership and not by an ordinary action at law.</p> <p>2. Same — Partnership Considered as Business Entity. While' a partnership is not strictly a legal entity, for practical purposes it may be considered as a business entity. It has its own capital, its own assets and liabilities, and it has a commercial life and credit of its own, virtually though not technically independent of 'the members comprising- it.</p> <p>3. Same — Tortious Act of Servant — Liability of Partners for Contribution. Though a tortious act of the servant of a partnership is attributable in law to his employers, the' partnership, yet where the partners themselves are not guilty of actual delinquency nor otherwise willfully culpable, contribution between the partners for thé tortious act of their servant is lawful; and the rule that no contribution will be enforced between joint tort-feasors has no application.</p> <p>4. Same — Wheat Misappropriated by Manager — Liability of Partners for Contribution. The plaintiff and the four defetadants formed a partnership to transact the business of a grain elevator. They hired a manager to conduct and operate it. Under an agreement with the manager, the plaintiff placed over ten thousand bushels of grain in the elevator to be stored, cleaned and loaded on railway cars. The manager misappropriated a large amount of plaintiff’s wheat, but the partners were free of any personal delinquency therefor. An action was brought by plaintiff to dissolve the partnership, for an accounting, and for the conversion of the wheat by the manager. Held, that w