90 Minn. 533 | Minn. | 1903
Action to recover the value of certain crops alleged to be the property of plaintiff, and to have been wrongfully converted by defendant. Defendant had a verdict in the court below, and plaintiff appealed from an order denying a new trial. .
The facts are as follows: Defendant was the owner of a farm in Lac qui Parle county, which he listed with plaintiff, a real estate agent, for sale upon specified terms, and conditions. The relation of principal and agent existed between the parties; defendánt being the principal, and plaintiff the agent. Plaintiff endeavored to1 secure a purchaser of the farm, and was successful; securing one who agreed to pay the sum of $34 per acre'for the land. He reported to defendant that he had secured a purchaser who would pay the sum of $33 per acre, provided he received, in addition to the land, one-third of the crops then grow
It was the duty of plaintiff, as the agent of defendant, in making the sale of the farm, to keep defendant fully informed of all material facts in reference to’ the transaction; and, though defendant may have authorized the salé upon certain specified terms, if plaintiff knew that more advantageous terms could be obtained, the facts concerning which were unknown to defendant, he was in duty bound, and under every legal and moral obligation, to communicate the facts in reference thereto ho him, and his failure to do so was a fraud in law. Holmes v. Cathcart, 88 Minn. 213, 92 N. W. 956; 1 Am. & Eng. Enc. (2d Ed.) 1081.
It was practically conceded on the argument by counsel for plaintiff that his client in fact attempted a fraud upon defendant, but it is urged that, because at the time the contract was made and entered into between' defendant and plaintiff for the sale of the land to a third party, plaintiff paid $20 to defendant thereon, which- has never been repaid or tendered back, title to the crops passed to him, for the reason that
It follows, therefore, that plaintiffTs not the owner of the crops in question, and the verdict of the jury for defendant was the only one that could have been returned consistently with the law and the undisputed facts.
The claim on the part of plaintiff that the.crops were excluded from the sale, by some arrangement between him and the purchaser, by which certain amounts were to be applied as interest on the purchase price of the farm, cannot be considered, for all that evidence was, on motion of defendant, stricken out by the court. The motion was
“To strike out all of the evidence in regard to the interest being credited there, on the ground that it is not the best evidence.”
The motion being granted, all such evidence was eliminated from the case. And besides plaintiff’s contract with defendant did not authorize him to make any such an arrangement with the purchaser of the land. But the evidence was stricken out, and the order of the court in that respect is' not assigned as error.
Order affirmed.
START, C. J., absent, sick, took no part.