134 Iowa 70 | Iowa | 1906
At the time of the transaction in controversy the appellees, Sidney Smith and his wife, Laura B.
The appellant denies the allegations of fraud and misrepresentation, and insists upon the entire fairness and validity of the transaction. Pending this action, appellant brought suit to foreclose the mortgage for $1,000 to which reference is above made. The appellees resisted the foreclosure, setting up the same alleged fraud pleaded in the suit for rescission as hereinbefore shown. In the first ease the district court found for the Smiths, decreeing a rescission of the exchange, and restoring to- them the title to their Cedar Rapids property as prayed, subject, however, to a lien of $500 in favor of the appellant on account of the mortgage which appellant had paid off or caused to be released, which sum the appellees were required to pay within one year from the date of the decree. In the foreclosure action the court also found for the Smiths and dismissed the petition. Redmond appeals from the decision of the court in both cases, and the Smiths have also appealed from that provision of the decree which establishes the lien upon their homestead.
Moreover, it is quite clearly shown that at the time of this deal Mr. Smith was in a physical and mental condition, the particulars of which we need not here repeat, which, if not amounting to actual incompetence for a business transaction of this nature, did render him peculiarly liable to be overreached by a person disposed to take advantage of it. A further significant circumstance is found in the closing phrase in the written contract (prepared by the appellant) for the exchange, which reads as follows: “ There are no other agreements or representations relied upon by either of the parties other than the agreements and stipulations herein contained.” It would be going too far to say that this provision in a contract is in itself a confession of fraud on the part of the one who exacts it; but it is entirely just to say that it manifests a degree of caution which is unusual among honest men dealing with each other in perfect candor, and
On all the appeals the decree of the district court is affirmed.