Story & Isham Commercial Co. v. Story

Citations

• 100 Cal. 30
• 34 P. 671
• 1893 Cal. LEXIS 744

Syllabus

<p>Counterclaim.—Independent Cause of Action Arising Out of Same Transaction—Construction of Code.—Section 438 of the Code of Civil Procedure “that the defendant may counterclaim any cause of action arising out of the transaction set forth in the complaint as the foundation of the plaintiff’s claim, or connected with the subject of the action, ” is to he construed as permitting matters growing out of the same transaction, which may constitute an independent cause of action in favor of the defendant, to be set up by way of counterclaim.</p> <p>Id.—Definition of “Transaction.”—A “transaction” is “a matter or affair either completed or in course of completion,” and is more or less complex, consisting of various facts and acts done by the parties, and there may and generally must be acts, facts, events and defaults in the transactions as a whole which do not enter into each cause of action in favor of the plaintiff and defendant, but are confined to one of them alone.</p> <p>Id.—Form of Plaintiff’s Action Immaterial—Pleading Omitted Facts. The form in which the plaintiff may set out his cause of action is not conclusive upon the right of the defendant to set forth his counterclaim in the answer; but if other facts in the same transaction are so connected with those set forth in the complaint as to defeat their legal effect, the defendant may set them up regardless of the form which the plaintiff may have chosen for presenting his own side of the case, and if the plaintiff omits to set forth the entire transaction out of which the claim arises the defendant may plead the omitted facts so that the entire transaction may be before the court.</p> <p>Id.—Reciprocal Rights of Parties.—The rights of the several parties to plead a counterclaim in defense to an action by one against the other for a breach of their respective obligations growing out of the facts in controversy is reciprocal, and the entire transaction between them and .the rights resulting therefrom are to he det