188 Pa. 534 | Pa. | 1898
Opinion by
Morris, the plaintiff, averred that he had leased to defend
Morris brought suit on the written contract as an executed one which could not be canceled or rescinded without the consent of both parties. The evidence at the trial was flatly con
The court below submitted the contradictory testimony to the jury, who found for defendants, and plaintiff appeals, assigning eight errors. The first is to a ruling of the court sustaining an objection to questions put by plaintiff to Campbell concerning the lease. It will be noticed that plaintiff averred the lease had been reduced to writing and signed, yet he failed to produce it, and alleged in his statement that it was in possession of defendants. He had subpoenaed both Queen and Guffey to produce it; each of them, when sworn, denied having possession of the paper or knowledge of it. He then called Campbell, in whose possession he had last seen it, and examined him only as to the execution of and existence of the paper. He answered that the lease had been drawn, had been signed by Morris, and that he had destroyed it. In answers not responsive to questions put he undertook to state that the paper was not a lease. The defendants then, against objection of plaintiff overruled by the court, attempted on cross-examination to elicit from the witness defendants’ whole case, and succeeded to a great extent. Afterwards defendants called Campbell as their witness and sought to prove by him that the paper was not an executed lease, and was to be inoperative until Morris obtained the deed from his father, and that before this was done, on notice to him by Campbell, the paper was destroyed. On cross-examination, plaintiff proposed to ask him whether he did not, after he had solicited the lease from Morris, tell Jesse Scott, Isaac Orndorf and others, naming them, that he had leased the land from Morris; this for the purpose of contradiction, and as affecting Campbell’s credibility; the question was objected to by defendants’ counsel on the ground that the agent could not affect his principals by statements to third parties after the lease had been drawn. The proposition embraced in the objection may be conceded; an agent cannot by declarations subsequent to the act of agency affect his principals ; but that is no answer to the purpose of the offer. Plaintiff could assail the credibility of the agent as a witness by showing that he made inconsistent statements to others. The effect of such statements, however, should be restricted only to the contradiction of the witness, both by counsel in their argument and the court in its charge.
The fourth assignment was to overruling the objection of plaintiff to certain testimony offered by defendants. W. S. Guffey, one of defendants, being on the stand, defendants’ counsel proposed to ask him this question: “Do you know of any arrangement having been made by your firm with F. M. Schriver, recorder, in 1894, for having this form of lease (exhibit A) printed into his books for your form of lease ? For the purpose of showing that defendants’ leases were of such a uniform form used by them that they had the form printed in
The remaining assignments complain that the court did not peremptorily affirm certain prayers for instruction. The plaintiff was entitled to the instructions he asked in these points, and the court concurred. They were all in the alternative, and the court followed the affirmation with the instruction that if the jury did not find the facts as claimed by plaintiff the law as stated in them would have no application. There was no error in this; it was possibly over caution, but could not prejudice plaintiff.
Because of the errors already referred to, however, the judg ment is reversed and a v. f. d. n. awarded.