6 Utah 301 | Utah | 1889
On the seventeenth day of July, 1886, the defendants, by contracts in writing, sold to the plaintiffs all their possessory rights to any and all ranches or ranges then and theretofore held and occupied by them, with all water-rights, fences, and improvements, situated in the counties of Oneida, in Idaho, and Box Elder, in Utah, together with all their herds of cattle then on said ranges, excepting two thousand head of steers previously sold, one thousand of which steers had already been selected and driven away, and the other one thousand to be selected and driven off within ninety days from July 15, 1886. The sale also included six mares, forty-mine saddle horses, and all the wagons, harness, saddles, and other property owned by defendants and used in said ranches. As a basis for estimating the number of cattle sold, and the amount to be paid by plaintiffs, the contract recited that fifteen hundred calves had already been branded in the year 1886, and provided that defendants should continue the branding of calves, the increase of stock then on the range, until December 1, 1886, giving to plaintiffs an opportunity to be present at such branding; the whole number of calves to be branded; including the fifteen hundred already branded, not to exceed twenty-two hundred and fifty, and none to be branded after December 1, 1886, at which time all the property and premises were to be delivered to them; and that the herds should be estimated to contain three head of cattle for every calf so branded, or three times the number of calves branded in the year 1886, prior to December 1st. Plaintiffs were to pay defendants for all the cattle and property purchased
The rule that “parol contemporaneous evidence is inadmissible to contradict or vary the terms of a valid written instrument,” does not exclude evidence of extrinsic facts necessary to a full understanding of the meaning of the parties. “It is directed only against the admission of any other evidence of the language employed by the parties in making che contract than that which is furnished by the writing itself. The writing, it is true, may be read by the light of surrounding circumstances in order more perfectly to understand the intent and meaning of the parties; but, as they have constituted the writing to be the only outward and visible expression of their meaning, no other words are to be added to it or substituted in its stead.” 1 Greenl. Ev. Sec. 277. The same author says: “ If the language of the instrument is applicable to several persons,' to several parcels of land, to several species of goods, to several monuments or boundaries, to several writings, or the terms be vague and general, or have divers meanings, * * * in all these and the like cases parol evidence is admissible of any extrinsic circumstances tending to show
The court instructed the jury that, if they found the plaintiffs, in order to obtain possession of the property mentioned in the contract, were compelled when making the final payment to pay for any. property to which they were entitled, but which was not delivered to them, such payment was in law a payment under duress, and might be recovered back. The giving of this instruction is assigned as error. Counsel for defendants insist that, as plaintiffs knew when they made the final payment that all the property which they claim should have been delivered to them was not delivered, the payment was voluntarily made, with full knowledge of all the facts, and hence was not a payment under duress. The court stated the law correctly. In Baldwin v. Steamship Co., 74 N. Y. 125, the defendants, as common carriers, transported certain boxes from New York to London for a stipulated sum, but, upon learning that the contents of the boxes were of much greater value than.they supposed when they received them for shipment, refused to deliver them to the consignee without the payment of an additional sum, which was accordingly paid, and it was held that the money so paid could be recovered back as having been paid under duress of goods. In Harmony v. Bingham, 12 N. Y. 99, a common carrier, having in his possession a large amount of valuable merchandise, exacted for freight more than was due as a condition of its delivery to the owner, and the latter, to obtain possession of the property, paid the amount wrongfully demanded under protest, and it was held that it was not a voluntary payment, and he could recover it back. In Stenton v. Jerome, 54 N. Y. 480, the defendants, who were stockbrokers, held two United States bonds belonging to the