2 Pa. 13 | Pa. | 1845
after stating the case. — It is a case of fraud, not mistake; for although the scrivener was at first in error as to the purport of the agreement, the mistake was discovered before it was signed, and would, we have reason to believe, have been altered but for the false and fraudulent representations of the defendant. If the case be as stated, it is a palpable fraud, which consists in the defendant refusing to comply with his contract, and insisting, in violation of good faith, upon the legal construction of the agreement as written. The gravamen of the plaintiff’s action is, that he was induced to sign the submission by the fraudulent representation of the defendant, and on this ground only, on the circumstances which attend the case, can this action be maintained. This appears from Miller v. Henderson, 10 Serg. & Rawle, 290 ; and Hare v. Kelbourn, administrator of Bell, 14 Serg. & Rawle, 150. The latter case, which recognises and adopts Miller o. Henderson, was a suit on a bond, in which it was held, that parol evidence is not admissible to show that at the time it was executed, the obligee declared that he would exact nothing more than the interest to be paid during his lifetime, and that at his death, the bond should become null and void, unless the obligor was induced by such declarations to execute the bond. The court ^say : had the defendants offered to prove that they were induced to execute the bond in consequence of the representations of Bell, the plaintiff’s intestate, that only the interest should be exacted during his lifetime, and that the principal should not be called for after his death, the case would have fallen within the principle decided in Miller v. Henderson ; but in this particular it was entirely deficient. The cases cited conclusively show that it is only on the footing of fraud that the party can be relieved from the legal effect of a written instrument where no mistake has occurred in reducing the instrument to writing. Fraud
The court was right in negativing the defendant’s sixth point, “that the testimony of Mr. Potter, showing that the parties authorized the arbitrators to be organized and sworn, is a strong circumstance to be considered by the jury in rebutting any evidence of fraud on the part of the defendant and mistake of the scrivener.” That it is entitled to some weight may be admitted; but the court would not be warranted
The remarks already made dispose of the whole case, and render it unnecessary to consider the other exceptions.
Judgment reversed, and venire de novo awarded.