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216 N.C. 430

5 S.E.2d 127

Ray Ex Rel. Ray v. Robinson

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided November 1, 1939

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1939-11-01

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“It is established by a number of decisions that in the absence of some express or implied gratuity . . . services rendered by one person to or for another, which are knowingly and voluntarily received, are presumed to be given and accepted in expectation of being paid for, and the law will imply a promise to pay what they are reasonably worth (citations omitted).”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 130 N.C. App. 426 - Scott v. United Carolina Bank

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1939-11-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently August 1998

14 state decisions

601939194019501960197019801990decided

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 →

Stacy, C. J.

¶1 Upon issues of fact, determinable alone by the jury, the plaintiff has been allowed to recover accordant with settled principles of law. Winkler v. Killian, 141 N. C., 575, 54 S. E., 540; Bank v. McCullers, 201 N. C., 412, 160 S. E., 497; Landreth v. Morris, 214 N. C., 619, 200 S. E., 378.

¶2 It is established by a number of decisions, that in the absence of some express or implied gratuity, usually arising out of family relationship or mutual interdependence, services rendered by one person to or for another, which are knowingly and voluntarily received, are presumed to be given and accepted in expectation of being paid for, and the law will imply a promise to pay what they are reasonably worth. Winkler v. Killian, supra; Callahan v. Wood, 118 N. C., 752, 24 S. E., 542. Here, there is no presumption of gratuity, Stallings v. Ellis, 136 N. C., 69, 48 S. E., 548, but rather facts and circumstances from which the inference may be drawn that payment was intended on the one hand and expected on the other. Brown v. Williams, 196 N. C., 247, 145 S. E., 233. Upon this principle the case has been tried, and the record is apparently free from error.

¶3 As no reversible error has been made to appear, the verdict and judgment will be upheld. See Price v. Askins, 212 N. C., 583, 194 S. E., 284, and cases there cited.

¶4 No error.

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