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94 A.D. 497

Smith v. Sheldon

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · decided 1904-05-15

Appeal by the defendant, Alice Sheldon, from an order of . the County Court of Columbia county, entered in the office of the clerk of Columbia county on the 2d day of October, 1903, directing that the costs theretofore taxed in favor of defendant in the above-entitled-action be set aside, and that costs be retaxed by said clerk in favor of plaintiff and against defendant.

Relies on Tompkins v. . Ives

Decided 1904-05-15

Chase, J. :

¶1In determining the effect of an offer to compromise the condition of the pleadings at the time the offer is served must be considered. (Tompkins v. Ives, 36 N. Y. 75.) The amount of the judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff was ninety-seven cents less than the offer of judgment. It is claimed by the plaintiff that in addition to the money judgment recovered by him he has also extinguished the defendant’s counterclaim, and that, therefore, the judgment recovered upon the trial is more favorable to him than the offer. (15 Ency. Pl. & Pr. 56.)

¶2" The defendant contends that all the items of her counterclaim are so connected with the items of the plaintiff’s complaint that in determining the balance due the plaintiff such items constituting her counterclaim could have been proven under a general denial, and that had the plaintiff accepted her offer of judgment, such counterclaim would have been extinguished. The defendant is mistaken in her claim at least- to the extent of the item for wood claimed to have been sold by the defendant to the plaintiff about a year prior to the time wdien the written contract between the plaintiff and defendant was made and prior to the transactions upon which the plaintiff’s suit is based.* Such item appears to arise from an independent contract. Claims or demands arising from distinct and *500independent contracts will sustain separate actions or counterclaims, .and are not affected by actions between the same parties arising from other independent contracts or transactions. (Secor v. Sturgis, 16 N. Y.. 548.)

¶3We are.of the opinion that the plaintiff obtained a more favorable judgment than that offered by the defendant. The order should be affirmed, with ten ^dollars costs and disbursements.

¶4All concurred.

¶5Order affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.

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