Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railroad v. Moss

Citations

• 130 Md. 198

Syllabus

<p>Real estate brokers: commissions; securing leases; assumpsit for—. Pleading: declaration; amendment to; amounting to new cause of action; limitations. Interest: when question for jury. Statute of Limitations: when begins to run; when a mixed question of law and fact.</p> <p>In an action of assumpsit for services rendered, a non-expert witness should testify only as to the facts that he knows, and should not give an opinion estimate of the yalue of such services; it is the province of the jury to weigh the evidence and value the services. p. 211</p> <p>Except in cases wdiere interest is allowable as of right, the question of such allowance is in the discretion of the jury.</p> <p>p. 203</p> <p>Where interest is not a matter of right, an instruction is erroneous which directs the jury to allow interest “from such time as the jury may find from the evidence that such services were completed, to the date of their verdict.” p. 203</p> <p>Where an amended declaration introduces a new or different cause of action, and makes a different claim and demand, it is equivalent to a new suit upon a new cause of action, and opens the case to the bar of the Statute of Limitations; such a plea is then proper and available, and the rule applies though the two causes of action arose out of the same transaction, p. 204</p> <p>Limitations begin to run against a claim or right as soon as the cause of action accrues, whether it be a trust or not, or whether it be a claim at law or in equity. p. 204</p> <p>When the facts upon which the time of the accruing of the right or claim depend are in dispute, the question of' limitations becomes a mixed one of law and fact, to be left to the jury, under proper instructions from the court as to what, in law, is sufficient to constitute a bar or take the case out of the statute.</p> <p>p. 207</p> <p>Where a suit is brought in assumpsit to recover for services rendered in securing a lease for the defendant and in surrendering the plaintiff’s own lea