26 Mo. App. 403 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1887
No candid mind, on reading this record, can escape the impression that the whole conduct of the defendant throughout this transaction was most reprehensible.
■It is true that in actions instituted in justices?'
Be this as it may, by this defence he would logically admit the contract of sale, and rely upon a breach of its terms; whereas he openly stated to the court that his first defence was, that the whole transaction was a joke ; that, in fact, there was no contract of sale, and that (only) in the event the jury found this issue against Mm would he claim there was a sale and a breach of the warranty. By every rule of pleading and common sense these positions were irreconcilably inconsistent, and destructive, the one of the other. While under ordinary circumstances of good faith, the largest liberality is to be indulged by the courts in such trials, yet it must be in furtherance of justice.
The trial court advised the defendant of the inconsistency of the two defences, and offered to allow him to elect. If the sale was a joke, there was no sale, and no contract in contemplation of law. If there was no con
The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.