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62 Mont. 485

Best v. Beaudry

Montana Supreme Court

Decided March 6, 1922

Montana Supreme Court · decided 1922-03-06

Appeals from District Court. Cascade County; J. B. Leslie, Judge. Action by C. D. Best against Valmore Beaudry and another, doing business under the firm name of Beaudry Bros. From a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, dismissing plaintiff’s cause of action and from the order denying plaintiff’s motion for a new trial, plaintiff appeals. The court erred in granting defendant’s motion for judgment non obstante veredicto.

Relies on Murray v. Hauser

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed and remanded · Decided 1922-03-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently December 1959

3 state decisions

101922193019401950decided

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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MR. CHIEF COMMISSIONER STARK

¶1prepared the opinion for the court.

¶2So far as it is necessary to state the facts involved in this case, in order to decide the only question which can properly be considered on this appeal, they are as follows: The plaintiff filed his complaint against the defendants, seeking to recover compensation for services alleged to have been rendered to and for them in connection with the sale of certain ranch property located in Cascade county, and in substance alleges: (1) That the defendants were partners under the firm name of Beaudry Bros.; (2) that in October, 1918, defendants were the owners of a ranch known as “Beaudry Bros. Ranch,” consisting of 3,200 acres and a considerable amount of personal property upon and about the same; that in said month they employed the plaintiff to canvass, advertise and solicit for and bring them in touch with persons who would be likely to purchase such property, and for such services agreed to pay plaintiff five per cent of whatever the property would sell for; that immediately thereafter the plaintiff did advertise, canvass and solicit for a purchaser who might be able and willing to purchase the property; that, after doing this, plaintiff secured two persons whom he introduced and turned over to the defendants; and that as a result thereof negotiations were entered into between *488these two persons and the defendants, which resulted in a sale of said property to them by the defendants for the sum of $90,000.

¶3The complaint further alleges that the plaintiff has fully performed all the terms and provisions of the contract on his part and that defendants have not paid him the compensation agreed upon. , The answer of the defendants admits the partnership and the ownership of the property as set out in the amended complaint, but denies all the other allegations' thereof, except it admits that the described property was sold for the sum of $90,000. The case came on for trial before the court and a jury on May 6, 1920. Testimony was introduced upon the part of the plaintiff and defendants, after which both plaintiff and defendants rested. Thereupon, the court submitted to the jury the following single question: “Did the defendants employ the plaintiff to secure a purchaser for the property described in the complaint and promise, in the event of his securing such purchaser, to pay him, the plaintiff, five per cent of the purchase price of the property, when sold?” which they answered in the affirmative. On the following day plaintiff moved for “judgment in favor of the plaintiff upon the verdict as returned by the jury herein.” Subsequently, defendants moved the court for a judgment in their favor, “notwithstanding the verdict.” On May 18, the court made an order: “That the plaintiff’s motion be denied and that he take nothing, and that the defendants have judgment for their costs herein expended.”

¶4On June 9, pursuant to the above-mentioned order, a judgment was entered, which recites: “Pursuant to the order heretofore made and entered on the eighteenth day of May, 1920, granting the defendants’ motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and for their costs, it is therefore ordered and adjudged that the plaintiff’s cause of action in the above-entitled case be and the same is hereby dismissed and that the plaintiff take nothing”—and awarded costs to defendants. The plaintiff made a motion for a' new trial, which was denied. From *489this, judgment and the order denying his motion for new trial, plaintiff has appealed.

¶5It is only necessary to consider plaintiff’s second assignment [1,2] of error, which is that the court erred in entering judgment dismissing the plaintiff’s cause of action. From a .reading of paragraph 2 of the amended complaint, and the defendants’ answer thereto, it will be observed that at least five distinct material issues of fact were tendered thereby, which the parties were entitled to have submitted to and determined by the jury. (Sec. 9327, Rev. Codes 1921.)

¶6A trial by jury contemplates the determination of all the issues of fact in a case in the form of a verdict. (28 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 640.)

¶7Only one of the material questions of fact raised by the pleadings in the ease, namely, whether the defendants employed the plaintiff to secure a purchaser for the property described in the complaint, and agreed to pay him five per cent of the. selling price thereof, was submitted to the jury. Whether the plaintiff performed his part of the alleged contract by advertising, canvassing, and soliciting for a purchaser who would be willing to buy the property; whether he did in fact secure prospective purchasers and introduce them to the defendants; and whether or not, as a result of any services rendered by 'the plaintiff to or for the defendants, their property was in fact sold, as alleged in the amended eompláint—are issues which were not submitted to or determined by the jury upon the trial.

¶8As the case now stands, no verdict has been rendered; no determination of the issues of fact raised by the pleadings has been made; and no trial of the action, as contemplated by the statute, was had. There was only a mistrial.

¶9When a jury is discharged without a verdict, the proceeding is properly known as a mistrial. (Fisk v. Henarie (C. C.), 32 Fed. 427.) Moreover, under the statutes of this state there [3] is no warrant for a judgment “notwithstanding the verdict” in a law ease.

¶10*490It is apparent from the foregoing statements that the court erred in entering judgment dismissing the plaintiff’s complaint.

¶11Under the circumstances disclosed by this record, “it is neither necessary nor proper to consider the other assignments of error.” (Murray v. Hauser, 21 Mont. 120, 53 Pac. 99.)

¶12For the reasons above indicated, we recommend that the judgment and order appealed from be reversed and the cause remanded, with directions to the district court to grant a new trial.

¶13Per Ctjriam: For the reasons given in the foregoing opinion, the judgment and order appealed from are reversed and the cause is remanded, with directions to the district court to grant a new trial.

¶14Reversed and remanded.

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