60 Ark. 606 | Ark. | 1895
It is probable that even a slight degree of intoxication to some extent temporarily impairs the mental faculties, but it does not follow that all contracts made while one is thus slightly intoxicated are void. It is only when one is so completely intoxicated as to be incapable of knowing what he is doing, or of understanding the consequences of his acts, that his contracts, entered into while in that state, are thereby rendered void. 2 Kent, Com. 451; Gore v. Gibson, 13 Mees. & W. 623; Bates v. Ball, 72 Ill. 108; Schramm, v. O'Conner, 98 Ill. 541; Johns v. Fritchey, 39 Md. 258; 11 Am. & Eng. Enc. L. 775.
Where the defense is that the contract or note was procured through fraud, the court or jury trying the case may take into consideration, along with other surrounding circumstances, the condition of the contracting parties at the time of making the contract, whether' either of them was to any extent under the influence of intoxicating drink, in order to determine whether the contract was procured through fraud or not. But, in the absence of fraud, the intoxication to invalidate a contract must be such as to temporarily dethrone reason and judgment.
The sixth paragraph was only a repetition of the first in different words.
In the second paragraph in the supplemental answer, which is quite lengthy, defendant apparently undertakes to set up several different defenses, but his statements are so indefinite that we can not make out from them that he has any defense. The Court of Appeals of Kentucky in Archer v. National Insurance Co. 2 Bush, 226, said that “a multifarious and fishing answer of eighteen paragraphs should never be considered with indulgent favor, nor be liberally interpreted.” The answer of which the court spoke was much more prolix than this one, and we have not intended to apply that principle in this case, but a remark of the court in that case is, we believe, true of this one that ‘‘a good defense could and should be condensed in a much smaller compass.”
We do not think the answer set up any defense except that stated in the fifth paragraph. The demurrer to each of the remaining paragraphs should have been sustained.
The judgment of the circuit court is therefore reversed, and the cause remanded, with an order to sustain the demurrer to each of the remaining paragraphs of plaintiffs’ answer, and to the supplemental answer, with leave for defendant to file an amended answer if he so desires. If he declines to amend, let the case be tried on the issue made by the defense of no consideration set out in the fifth paragraph.