186 Pa. 294 | Pa. | 1898
Opinion by
There are twenty-three assignments of error filed in this case. Fifteen of them are based on answers to the defendant’s points, three on the admission of evidence objected to by the defendant, three on excerpts from the charge, and two on the alleged inadequacy, partiality and misleading tendencies of the charge as a whole. The questions raised by them are not so numerous. As preliminary to the consideration of the questions to be determined it should be stated that previous to and at the time of the transaction which resulted in this litigation the plaintiffs were interested and engaged in the oil business in Tyler county, West Virginia, and Monroe county, Ohio, and that a few days before the transaction referred to certain parties claiming to be creditors of theirs attached all their property in Tyler county. The nature of their business and of the property attached called for a prompt dissolution of the attachments to protect them against the loss they would sustain by their continuance. To obtain the dissolution of them it was necessary to provide bonds conditioned
The papers under consideration fully warrant, we think, the construction put upon them by the learned court below. It is in accord with the oral testimony, showing the intention of the parties, and with the letter written and sent by the president of .the company to Hill on the day the papers were prepared and executed. It was therefore the duty of the company to proceed without delay to effect a dissolution of the attachments.
In and by the paper marked “ exhibit B ” the Oil Well Supply Company agreed, among other things, to furnish all money and material necessary for sinking a second oil well on the Tuell farm in Monroe county, Ohio, and out of the proceeds of
It is claimed by tbe plaintiffs tbat when their property was finally released from the attachments tbe Oil Well Supply Company, in violation of its promises and representations, and in fraud of their lights, took possession of tbe same, and wholly excluded them and their superintendent or manager from the possession and control of it.
It was clearly for the jury to determine upon the evidence, and under instructions from the court, whether the Oil Well Supply Company failed or refused to perform or abide by its agreements with the plaintiffs, and, if it did so, to ascertain from the evidence whether the plaintiffs sustained loss or damage as the direct result of such failure or refusal. In the instructions under which these matters were submitted we are unable to discover inadequacy, partiality or misleading tendencies. They carefully and fairly presented to tbe jury every question of fact arising1 from the conflicting evidence on which it was their province and duty to pass, and neither party to the suit has reasonable cause to complain of them. The same may he said of the instructions respecting the measure of damage. The learned trial judge adopted without qualification the rules contained in the defendant’s sixteenth, nineteenth and twenty-sixth points, and affirmed the general proposition of law contained in its tenth point, qualifying it only in so far as it contained matters proper for the consideration of the jury. If the defendant company desired further instructions as to the measure of damages it should have requested them. It seems to us, however, that the instructions on this point were unobjectionable and adequate. They carefully guarded against the allowance of punitive and remote, or speculative damages, and restricted the jury to the allowance of actual damages only.
In accordance with the foregoing views the specifications of error are overruled and the judgment is affirmed.