358 Mass. 813 | Mass. | 1970
Mr. Donovan and his wife obtained a verdict on a count in tort for alleged misrepresentations by Joseph O’Brien, a sales representative of the defendant (Mac-Gray). Mac-Gray argues exceptions to the trial judge’s refusal to direct a verdict for it and to rulings on evidence. On confused, conflicting evidence, the jury could have concluded that the Donovans, in purchasing from Mac-Gray coin-operated dry cleaning equipment, reasonably relied upon O’Brien’s statements, material to the Donovans’ decision to purchase, concerning (a) the extent to which the equipment could be employed without an attendant, (b) the scope of a general written survey (if one existed) of the area in which the equipment was to be used and of O’Brien’s examination of the books of a laundry run by one Tunha in which the Donovans planned to lease space for the dry-cleaning equipment, and (c) the volume of the laundry business there conducted by Tunha. The jury also could conclude that O’Brien’s statements, made as of his own knowledge, were either false or concerned unverified subsidiary facts (underlying the misrepresentations alleged) which were susceptible of verification. See Yorke v. Taylor, 332 Mass. 368, 371-374. The refusal to direct a verdict was proper. The bill of exceptions does not
Exceptions overruled.