65 Wis. 316 | Wis. | 1886
The preliminary agreement drawn by Klip-pel, and signed by the parties at Richfield on or before November 15, 1882, was lost before the trial. The testimony as to the contents of that agreement was in conflict, and hence the findings of the jury thereon may be accepted' as verities. According to those findings, that agreement was procured by false representations of the defendant as to his right to sell the agency; but the agreement for the purchase was not finally consummated until November 28, 1882. Then the papers were drawn by Haase at West Bend. They consisted of a deed of all the real estate in question to the plaintiffs, executed November 28,1882, by the defendant, reciting a consideration of $2,900, and a bond executed by the defendant at the same time to the plaintiffs in the
The rule is universal that, in the absence of fraud or mistake, proof of antecedent or contemporaneous verbal agreements between contracting parties cannot be received to alter or control their written agreement. Ibid.; Hubbard
Contrary to these principles, the jury found, from the parol evidence, that the papers drawn November 28, 1882, were received and accepted by the plaintiffs “ with the understanding that the agency aforesaid was thereby conveyed to them.” This was covered by and in direct conflict with the conditions of the bond. There is no finding that there was any mistake made in the execution of any of the papers; nor that there was any fraud or deception practiced upon the plaintiffs as to the contents of the bond or any of the papers. In the absence of such fraud or mistake, the plaintiffs were conclusively presumed to know the contents of the papers, and were bound by the conditions, provisions, and agreements therein contained. Fuller v. Madison Mut. Ins. Co. 36 Wis. 603. It will not do for men to enter into a contract, and then, when called upon to abide by its conditions, say that they did not read it, or were unaware of what it contained. Sanger v. Dun, 47 Wis. 620.
It follows that so much of the answer of the jury to the seventeenth question as found that the plaintiffs received and accepted the deed and bond with the understanding that the agency was thereby conveyed to them, was contrary to the conclusive, and hence undisputed, evidence. Erom -what has been said it conclusively follows that the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth findings of the jury, as
By the Court.— The judgment of the circuit court is re* versed, and the cause is remanded for a new trial.