Lindley v. McGlauflin

Citations

• 57 Wash. 581
• 107 P. 355
• 1910 Wash. LEXIS 801

Syllabus

<p>Account — Action—Comfulsory Reference — Equity — Right to Jury Trial. Tbe rights of the parties cannot be determined except by taking an accounting, and a compulsory reference may be ordered, under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 370, and a jury trial denied, where the first cause of action alleged that defendant had been left in charge of plaintiff’s business, a manufacturing plant, upon a salary, with the duty of a manager, including the keeping of accounts, for about one year, that defendant had disobeyed instructions, constructed himself a house from plaintiff’s materials, misappropriated money, and overdrawn his account, for which he had made no accounting, setting forth the items in detail, aggregating $1,291.30; and the answer claimed a larger salary based upon the profits of the business alleged at $7,344, claiming a balance due him of over $1,600; and the reply denied that there were any profits in the business.</p> <p>Account — Grounds for — Fiduciary Relations. In an action involving a long and complicated account, a compulsory reference may be ordered regardless of whether any partnership or other fiduciary relation existed between the parties.</p> <p>Account — Pleadings—Actions—Legal or Equitable — Determination. Whether an action presents a legal or equitable cause of action, involving a long and complicated account, may be determined from all the pleadings, and does not depend upon the complaint alone.</p> <p>Actions — Joinder—Legal and Equitable — Multiplicity of Suits —Account. In an action against plaintiff’s manager, involving an accounting of the business for about one year, for money and property misappropriated, other legal causes of action for the conversion of certain property, and for negligence in conducting the business, are so connected with or growing out of the principal transaction as to be triable with it in equity, to avoid a multiplicity of suits.</p>