135 Iowa 682 | Iowa | 1907
This action was brought to recover rent alleged to be due under a written lease for the term of five years. The defendant took' possession of the premises in the early part of November, 1903, and continued his possession until the following October. Some time in December, 1903, the parties executed a written lease for a term of five years. In the lease it was stipulated that the lessor was to heat the room and furnish the necessary water for the defendant’s business as a barber, and that the room was to be used by the defendant as a barber shop, and for no other purpose. The execution of the lease was admitted in the answer, but the defendant also pleaded that it was executed and delivered pursuant to a parol agreement, made prior to its execution, that its execution and delivery should be upon the condition that the premises were suitable for the purposes for which the defendant desired to use them, and that, if it was subsequently found that they were not dry, but damp, and were unsuitable for the business, the lease should not take effect, but should be inoperative and void; that, to induce the execution of the lease, the lessor represented that tile and concrete had been used in the construction of the building, and that it had been so constructed that the premises could not become damp, but would be suitable for occupation as a barber shop; and that such representations were false and fraudulent, avoiding the lease.
matters have been determined, is well settled. Sutton v. Weber, 121 Iowa, 361; Oakland Cemetery Co. v. Lakins, 126 Iowa, 121; Mt. Vernon Stone Co. v. Sheeley, 114 Iowa, 313; McKnight v. Parsons, (Iowa), 113 N. W. 858. It is also the rule that parol evidence is competent to assail the validity of a contract when it is claimed that it was procured by fraud. Harvesting Machine Co. v. Williams, 99 Iowa, 601. A lease is nothing but' a contract, and is governed by the same rules that other .contracts are. Taylor on Landlord & Tenant (9th Ed.) section 382.
There was error in directing a verdict for the plaintiff, and the judgment must be, and it is, reversed.