19 Pa. 235 | Pa. | 1852
The opinion of the Court, filed was delivered by
This was an action brought in the Court below by May & Klose against Snyder, to recover an alleged balance due to the plaintiffs below on book account. Mr. Snyder claimed to set off the sum of $600 alleged to be due by May & Klose tq George Gundrum, for one year’s rent of property leased to them by Gundrum, and which the latter had assigned to Snyder. The plaintiffs below offered Gundrum himself as a witness to prove that, at the time the lease was written, “ it was given in and understood and agreed” by the parties that the rent was only $'300, and not $600 per annum; and that the words “ the serai-annual rent of $300” were written in mistake by Gundrum, the lessor and assignor, under whom the defendant below claimed the set-off. The-admission of this evidence is assigned for error, and the ground of objection is that it tended to change the legal construction of the written contract. In this case the real contract of the parties was that $300 per year should be paid in semi-annual payments of $150; and the agreement was written for the purpose of carrying into effect that contract. The effect of the instrument was entirely misunderstood by both parties, and the question is, whether a Court of Equity is incapable of affording relief. We shall not attempt to thread our way through the wilderness of decisions in our books on the subject of correcting mistakes in written instruments by means of parol evidence of what passed at the time of
In the case before us, we throw out of view the purchase by Snyder at sheriff’s sale, because it occurred several*-months after his purchase of the year’s rent from Gundrum. The claim of Snyder in this suit is necessarily confined to the instalment due before the commencement of the suit, and his right to this is derived entirely from the assignment. A chose in action is, in general, not assignable at common law. In an action for the rent claimed in this suit, Mr. Snyder would be required to sue in the name of Gundrum, and must, in equity, stand in his shoes. Making the claim as a set-off, places him in no better condition. It is still to be treated as a claim made in the name of Gundrum upon his equities, although for the benefit of Snyder. Under such circumstances, when Gundrum himself, the only claimant who has any footing at law in regard to the demand, acknowledges in open Court, under oath, that the written instrument does not express the contract of the parties, and that the error was caused by a mistake made by himself, we do not perceive the principle of equity upon which Snyder could ask a chancellor to aid him in enabling him to use the name of Gundrum against his consent, and contrary to the acknowledged justice of the case, to recover double the sum actually agreed upon by the parties to the lease, and twice as much as Snyder himself paid for the claim. It must not be forgotten that Snyder has no standing at law in this matter. His assignment is only recognised in equity. No Court of Equity would permit him to use the name of the assignor against equity and good conscience.
But, conceding that Snyder has a right to use the name of Gundrum against conscience, to enforce a legal contract, let us
The objection to Reuben Keller as a witness does not disclose his interest, and there was, therefore, no error in overruling it.
The 2d assignment of en-or is too vague to receive consideration. An allegation that the Court erred in their answers to the defendant’s points, without specifying in what the error consists, is not a specification of error according to the rule of Court. But there is no error whatever in this record.
Judgment affirmed.