73 Iowa 582 | Iowa | 1887
The plaintiff was the owner of a grist-mill, saw-mill, house and 14 acres of land, in Marion county. Being somewhat advanced in years, he desired to dispose of said property. In February, 1886, he advertised it for sale by a notice in a newspaper. The defendants are husband and wife, and at that time, and for a year, previous thereto, they resided in Sioux county. Before that, and for some 12 years, they lived at Garden Grove, in Decatur county. The
There is no disputed proposition of law in the case, so far as the rights of the parties are concerned, upon the merits. The questions of law involved in a proceeding of this character are so well settled that there is no ground for debate as to them. The main question is, has the plaintiff established the averments of the petition (or such of them as are necessary to be established) by clear and satisfactory evidencé? (McClanahan v. McKinley, 52 Iowa, 222; Dirkson v. Knox, 71 Id., 728.) Another equally well-established rule is that, to entitle a party to relief in equity by reason of fraudulent misrepresentations, it is not necessary that it be shown that the party making the false statements knew they were false when he made them. They may have been innocently made, yet if represented as positive statements of fact, as distinguished from mere opinions, and relied upon by the other
Counsel for appellants strenuously contends that the letter written by the plaintiff on the 2d day of May, 1886, closed the contract between the parties, and that no consideration should be given to certain alleged false representations made at the plaintiff’s house on the day before the deeds were exchanged. It is true that in that letter the plaintiff used this language:
“ I think we will deal on the square. Now, when you get this, and read it over carefully, then you can arrange the details of fixing up papers, and write at once. If you have to have the house immediately, I will try and get one to move in. I have 3 or 4 days’ sawing that I must do, as I have yet to saw, and must do the work. Now, Mr. Carder, don’t think, because I am so generous, I am sick, or anything of that kind; I am hard run only. Think of an old man that has been laid up at least half his time for five years, and you will see my condition, and I would sell cheaper than any other man, though I did not say I would trade for land at too high figures. Still, I will say this is a trade, though a hard one for me. I wrote Mr. Stearns, and he said, if the land was in better
. It will be observed from these extracts from the letter that, while the plaintiff said he would trade, he also said he should not take the time to go and look at defendant’s property, but would take Ms word for. it.- That the parties did not then regard the bargain as closed is made plain by the fact that, when the defendant went to the plaintiff’s place, he carefully examined the mill property, and, while doing so, he was fully interrogated by plaintiff' as to the character, quality and location of the Decatur county property. The evidence makes it quite plain to us that he then misrepresented his property in many material respects, and that the plaintiff made the deed by reason of said misrepresentations, and relying thereon. In the course of the correspondence, the defendant referred the plaintiff to one Stearns, who resided in Decatur county, for information about the land and house and lot. Plaintiff wrote a letter of inquiry to Stearns, and received a reply. Neither the letter nor the reply was introduced in evidence. The defendants introduced Stearns as a witness to testify to the contents of the reply. It is insisted, on behalf of the defend
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