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104 Kan. 799

Bird v. Wilcox

Supreme Court of Kansas

Decided May 10, 1919

Supreme Court of Kansas · decided 1919-05-10

<p>Appeal from Montgomery district court; Joseph W. Holdren, judge.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1919-05-10

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently January 1984

5 state decisions

2019191920193019401950196019701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1The opinion of the court was delivered by

Burch, J.:

¶2The action was one by an excluded partner for an accounting and for recovery from his associates of his share of proceeds of the business. The plaintiff recovered, and the defendants appeal.

¶3While the charging part of the petition did not use the word partners, or the word partnership, it stated in full the facts concerning the relationship of the parties, and disclosed a partnership. Besides this, the petition alleged a demand for a partnership settlement and accounting, and the prayer for relief contained the characteristic words of a petition for relief respecting partnership affairs. Consequently, it was proper, for the court to instruct the jury on the subject of partnership.

¶4The partnership agreement was not in writing. The partnership business consisted in procuring oil and gas leases from landowners, and then selling the leases. The action was for recovery of proceeds of leases which had been procured and sold. While the leases themselves were, as between lessor and lessee, within the fourth clause of the sixth section of the statute of frauds (Gen. Stat. 1915, §4889), because real estate was involved, that clause did not apply to the personal relations and obligations created by the agreement .to deal in such instruments and divide the profits.

¶5An instruction limiting recovery by the plaintiff to certain subjects was not ambiguous or misleading. No prejudicial error is disclosed in the admission of evidence. The evidence was ample to sustain the verdict. The defendants cannot complain because the jury did not allow the plaintiff for his expenses, in addition to a share of those proceeds of the business which the defendants collusively and fraudulently appropriated. The plaintiff was entitled to judgment against both defendants, which will be discharged by a single satisfaction.

¶6The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

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