Reports of cases argued and decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Texas, during the Galveston session, 1867, with an appendix containing the cases of the Galveston session, 1861, etc. Volume 29. Page: 102

                                
93                RILEY v. RUNKLE.         [Galveston,
offered his account against plaintiff for the sum of $9.50,
in the following words and figures, to wit:
" CHARLES RUNKLE,
"To J. S. RILEY, Dr.
"April 20, 1858.- To visit and prescription for wife, -  -  $5 00
"November 10, 1858.- To three chairs, at $1.50,  -  -  4 50
"Total, -                                    $9 50
[93] "The dates not particularly recollected by petitioner.
Said justice of the peace overruled both the
right of petitioner for a continuance and also his right
to file his accounting offset."
A motion to dismiss was sustained. The plaintiff appealed.

Phil. Claiborne, for appellant, gave a history of the case
"'from memory."
No brief for appellee has been furnished to the reporter.
WILLIE, J. The motion to dismiss the certiorari was
properly sustained in the court below. The petition
states, that appellant made his legal showing for a continuance
for want of a material witness, who had been
duly subpoenaed, which legal showing was overruled by
the justice of the peace, etc. What was a legal showing
for a continuance in this particular case was a conclusion
of law, to be drawn by the court from a statement of the
facts upon which the application to continue was based.
The petition should have set forth these facts, or the substance
of them, so that the court could have judged as
to their sufficiency to sustain a motion for a continuance.
Robinson v. Lakey, 19 Tex. 139, and authorities cited.
Nor did the allegation in the petition, that the defendant,
in the justice's court, offered his account against
plaintiff, and .that the justice refused to allow it to be
filed in offset, furnish sufficient ground for a certiorari.
The law regulating discounts and set-offs requires that,
where a defendant shall desire to prove any payment or
set-off, he shall file with his plea an account, stating distinctly
the nature of such payment or set-off, and the
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