Stephen Johnson Field

“ Ordinary partnerships embrace all other kinds, and they differ essentially from the former in the powers and liabilities of the several partners. That which is material in the present case is, that, in ordinary partnerships, each partner is only bound individually for his share of the partnership debts; but to that extent a debt contracted by one partner, even without authority from the others, binds them if it be proved that the partnership was benefited by the transaction. ”

“ It is true, as already stated, that the members of an ordinary partnership, by the law of Louisiana, are only liable to their common creditor for their proportional part of the indebtedness of the partnership; and, in a suit by the creditor against the firm, a partner having an individual demand against the creditor may, by way of defence, or by exception, as it is termed in the practice of the State, offset or oppose the compensation of his demand to that of the creditor. ”

“ That indebtedness was not compensated and extinguished by operation of law by the indebtedness at the time of the bank to May, if such existed. Personal debts are only set off to each other, or compensated the one by the other, by oreration of law, when they are of the same personal character. A partnership debt is not thus offset or compensated by a demand of one individual member against the creditor. ”