Lay Gas MacHine Co. v. Falls of Neuse Manufacturing Co.

Pleading, complaint and answer. A complaint w'hich alleges that a certain matter wasjwithin the personal knowledge of the defendant, is not met by an'answer ‘ that defendant has no knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief” in reference to it. The ruling of the court below that the answer admits the plaintiff’s cause of action and offers no sufficient defence, is approved.

Civil ActioN, tried at March Special Term, 1884, of Wake Superior Court, before Avery, J. The complaint alleges and the answer admits that, about the middle of October, in the year 1881, the plaintiff sold the defendant a certain machine for the generation of gas, at the list price of nine hundred and seventy-five dollars, subject to a discount or deduction of one-third of that sum, and on the terms that the defendant should have it on trial for ninety days, during which, if dissatisfied with its operation, he could return it, and plaintiff would take it back. The plaintiff further states that about the month of February thereafter he forwarded the machine to the defendant, who retained possession for more than twelve months thereafter without making any complaint, and that upon demand he refuses to make payment. To this last averment the defendant replies that he “ has no knowledge and no information sufficient upon w’hich to found a belief as to the time when complaint was first made about the machine.” The defendant says that the ninety days was to be computed from the time when he began to use the instrument, and he sets up as a defence that the machine “ is not a good and sufficient machine, and is .so defective that it does not generate the quantity and quality for w’hich it was bought, and which it was represented by the plaintiff it would certainly generate, and further, that after a full and fair trial ” it is not worth more than one half of the price of $650. The court, being of opinion that the answer admits the plaintiff’s cause of action- and offers no sufficient defence, on motion of plaintiff’s counsel, rendered judgment for the amount of the plaintiff’s claim with interest, and the defendant appealed.