3 Abb. Ct. App. 182 | NY | 1863
Joseph Sibley, now deceased, and the defendant.
The meaning of the contraen cannot be satisfactorily ascertained without the aid of extrinsic evidence; and such evidence establishes, or at least strongly tends to establish, that the words, “ fulling mill and carding machine,” were used in the contract to designate the building in which the carding machine in question and the fulling mill had been situated and used; and that the former had been removed and stored in the grist mill upon the same farm, prior to (he making of the contract ; and by assuming that the words “ fulling mill and carding machine,” were employed to designate the building I have mentioned, the presumption is that the phrase “ fixtures, belonging to the fulling mill and carding machine,” as used in the contract, means the carding machine itself and other machinery that had been used in the carding machine and fulling mill building, and belonging therein when in their proper place. This interpretation of the contract is the only one that is consistent with the conduct of the parties. For the defendant assumed to own the carding machine in the fore part of the year 1837 or 1838, and disposed of it in one of those years; and Sibley did not bring this suit until February, 1843. And it is
For these reasons I am of the opinion that that part of the charge of the judge, above mentioned, misled the jury, and that he should have submitted to the jury, upon the evidence, the question whether the words “ carding machine and fulling mill,” as used in the contract, do not mean the building on the farm in which the business of carding wool and dressing cloth had been carried on; and if so, whether the phrase, “ fixtures belonging to the fulling mill and carding machine,” does not mean the carding machine in question, and other machinery that had been used in said building, though detached from it and housed, or stored, in some other place on the farm, at the date of the contract.
If these views are correct, the judgment of the supreme court should be reversed, and a new trial granted, in the action, costs to abide the event.
FiOSEKBAys, J., delivered an opinion in which he came to the same conclusion.
I have no difficulty in agreeing that Judge
It is with considerable hesitation that I disagree to the ruling of the court below on the main question in the case. “All the fixtures belonging to the falling mill and carding machine,” seem to me to include everything which has been a part of the machinery of this building, and which had not been removed and its place supplied by something else. It seems to me that the conveyance meant to include all which was essential to complete the machinery of these mills, whether then in use, or in the building or not, but not machinery which had been removed to give place to something else. The court below put the title solely upon the question of annexation at the time. I think this was an error; and on this ground I agree there should be a new trial.
I may add that I doubt whether the particular machine in question here was shown at all ever to have been attached to or a part of this building.
Denio, Oh. J., and Davies, J., concurred in this opinion.
Weight, J., read a dissenting opinion, in which Maevin, J., concurred. >
H. R. Seluen, J., took no part.
Judgment reversed, and new trial ordered; costs to abide event.