79 Iowa 352 | Iowa | 1890
On the sixteenth day of May, 1887, the defendant entered into an agreement in writing with plaintiffs, J. C. Hall and H. H. Norton, whereby he agreed to rent to them the Capitol Hotel, in Des Moines, together with appurtenances and furniture, and a billiard-room, for the term of six years from the first day of June, 1887. The agreed rental was two thousand dollars a year for the first four years, and twenty-five hundred dollars a year for the last two years, payable monthly in advance, excepting the sum of five hundred dollars, which was to be paid by plaintiffs when they took possession of the leased property, and which was to apply on rent for the last three months. The agreement also contained the following provision: “The one hundred dollars to be paid on signing of said lease is to apply on first month’s rent.” The agreement was somewhat informal, and was designed to be succeeded by a formal lease. No lease
III. Appellant contends that, notwithstanding the language of the agreement, it should be construed as the parties by their conduct and actions interpreted it. It appears that after the agreement was signed the plaintiffs forwarded to defendant, at Rochester, Minnesota, the sum of fifty dollars, and paid on his account, to a firm in Chicago, the further sum of fifty dollars, as a compliance with the provision in question. Some question is made as to the right of plaintiffs to make the last-named payment. It is contended by appellant that it was not made by authority, but that, by making it, and by sending fifty dollars to him in Minnesota, the' plaintiffs showed that they understood the money was to be paid before the lease was signed. The cases of Corbett v. Berryhill, 29 Iowa, 158, and McDaniels v. Whitney, 38 Iowa, 60, are reliéd upon as supporting that claim. But neither of those cases is authority for the proposition that the acts of the parties to an agreement will justify an interpretation which would be contrary to the intent of the parties, as clearly expressed in the language they have used. Where that language is so
IX. Other questions are discussed by counsel. Some of them are disposed of by what we have already said. Others refer to matters of minor importance, and none need be specifically referred to ; but it is sufficient to say that we have examined all questions thus presented with care, and discover no error prejudicial to defendant. The judgment of the court is
Aeeirmed.