99 Iowa 275 | Iowa | 1896
This is the second time this case has been before us. The opinion on the first appeal will be found in 89 Iowa at page 258 (56 N. W. Rep. 454). A somewhat extended and correct statement of the issues will be found in this first opinion, and they need not be repeated here. It is sufficient to say, that after the case was remanded to the lower court, the plaintiff amended his petition, by including all the notes given for the stallion, and asked judgment for the full amount thereof. Otherwise, the issues remained the same as upon the first trial.
II. Plaintiff requested certain instructions, which were refused by the court, and error is assigned on the rulings. Such of these instructions as embodied correct propositions of law were given by the court in his charge to the jury. Others were erroneous, and still others were misleading. What we have said sufficiently indicates our views regarding the law of the case, and we need not more particularly refer to the charge of the court.
IV. Some other errors are complained of, which we will not take the time to consider. What we have already said disposes of every controlling' question in the case. The parties have had two trials, resulting in a verdict each time for the defendants. There is abundant evidence upon which to predicate a finding of- fraud in the sale, and, as' we have seen, the jury was justified in concluding that there was a rescission of the contract within a reasonable time after the discovery of the fraud by the defendants. The instructions, as applied to the facts of the case, were correct, and the rulings on the admission and rejection of testimony were not erroneous. We have, perhaps, considered questions which are not properly made by the assignment of error; but we do so in order to settle all matters in dispute, and thus end the case. It may not be inappropriate to say that the judgment should be affirmed, even if there was no rescission, or if the' rescission was waived. The jury were told by the court that, if plaintiff made the representations as claimed, and they were false, and were known to plaintiff to be false at the time he made them, defendants would be entitled to recover of plaintiff, without rescission, the difference between the actual value of the stallion, in the condition he was in, as foal-getter and breeder, when sold, and what he would have been worth had he been as represented. The jury found