Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

2 Wend. 577

Quin v. Astor

New York Supreme Court

Decided May 15, 1829

New York Supreme Court · decided 1829-05-15

Error from the New-York common pleas. Quin, in December, 1826, sued Astor in the common pleas, and declared against him for work, labor and services. The plaintiff, un- ° 3 1 3 der a judge’s order, had. delivered the following bill of particulars : “ Common Pleas. John Quin v. John Jacob Astor. Particulars of plaintiff’s demand. 1821, April 20. To setting posts, with boards, for selling lots, $2. To paving done in Broadway, $50.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1829-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently March 1890

2 state decisions

1018291830184018501860187018801890decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

By the Court, Sutherland, J.

¶1This was an action of assumpsit, brought by Quin against Astor. It appeared from the statement of the plaintiff’s counsel in opening his case, that Quin had contracted with Astor at some antecedent period to fill in and otherwise regulate certain lots belonging to him in the city of New-York; that Astor had paid the contract price, but that certain extra, labor had been performed by Quin in 1817, ’18, ’19, and that this action was brought to recover compensation for that extra, labor. A bill of particulars had been delivered by the plaintiff, in which all the plaintiff’s charges were stated under the date of April, 1821. The defendant’s counsel objected to proof of any services prior to 1821, and the court below sustained the objection; and the plaintiff being unable to prove a single item of service during the year 1821, the court nonsuited him.

¶2In Humphrey v. Cottleyou, (4 Cowen, 54,) it is said that the date of the items should always be given with as much particularity as possible ; if the precise day cannot be stat*580e(^ m°uth or year should be designated. A bill of particulars as general as the declaration would probably be considered a contempt of the order, (1 Taunt. 353 ;) and though the time in a declaration is not material, it is in a bill of particulars. The object of a bill is, to give more precise information to the party than the declaration affords ; it is to remedy the defects in that respect of the declaration. (1 Cowen, 574, note, where the cases are well collected.)

¶3The calculation as to the extra, filling, &c. offered in evidence was properly rejected. It was proved to have been made by one Doughty, who also appeared to be alive and within the jurisdiction of the court. There was no evidence whatever of its correctness. The testimony of Corning amounted to nothing. He and Doughty were partners as surveyors, and Doughty generally made the calculations; but whether this calculation was made by Doughty, he could not say ; nor, if it was made by him, could he say that it was correct.

¶4The decisions below were correct, and the plaintiff was properly nonsuited.

¶5Judgment affirmed.

/2/wend/577 · .json · Public domain