55 Neb. 577 | Neb. | 1898
In this case there was a verdict for the plaintiff in accordance with a peremptory instruction, and this proceeding in error is prosecuted for the reversal of the judgment thereon rendered by the district court of Platte county. Plaintiff in error was held liable as one of the subscribers of the contract set out in the opinion in Hale v. Ripp, 32 Neb. 259, and afterwards considered in Ripp v. Hale, 45 Neb. 567. In the case under review we need not' discuss the defense considered in the two opinions just referred to. In the answer it was admitted that the defendant signed the contract sued upon. This contract was in this language:
“Humphrey, Nebraska, June 1,1888.
“We, the undersigned, hereby agree to pay the several sums opposite our names as follows; to deposit in the bank said sums, and it is to be paid over at the completion of a depot on the F., E. & M. Y. R. R. at Humphrey. The object is to pay for the east forty acres of land belonging to said Henry Gebecke and deeding the same to said R. R. Co.
“Jacob Ripp. $200.
“D.. A. Hale. $100.
“William Duesman. $50.
“F. M. COOKINGHAM. $100.”
There were fourteen other subscribers whose names we omit.
It was alleged in the answer that about the date of said subscription plaintiff and others, to advance the interests of the village of Humphrey, acting in concert, set about devising ways and means to induce the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad Company to erect and maintain a depot and station at Or near said village; that before the signing of said paper plaintiff, designing and intending to defraud the other parties to said paper, falsely and fraudulently represented to them
By his reply plaintiff admitted his ownership of the forty-acre tract, less about seven and one-half acres, and that he paid the purchase price for said tract and that it was conveyed to him as agent for the railroad company but he denied that this, or any other of his acts, was for the purpose of deceiving the subscribers to said paper, and alleged that his purchase was for the general good of the citizens and residents of Humphrey and to thereby induce the said railroad company to erect and maintain a depot and station, and that what he did was done for the benefit of the public generally and to hurry the matter of the erection of said depot station, and in reliance upon the faith and credit of the subscription paper and the assignment thereof and the belief that the same Avould be promptly paid, and because the owner of the land refused to convey until the Avhole amount of the purchase-money Avas paid to him.
From the evidence it is very clear that the arrangement whereby the railroad company Avas induced to build
Reversed and remanded.
I agree that the peremptory instruction was not proper and the judgment should be reversed.