72 N.J.L. 410 | N.J. | 1905
The opinion of the court was delivered by
To recover the price of books sold and delivered, the plaintiff sued on the following writing, signed by the defendant, and, according to the testimony on behalf of the plaintiff, read and understood by the defendant, namely:
“$18.00 Jan. 7, 1904.
“In order to aid the publication of a history of the State of New Jersey, entitled New Jersey as a Colony and as a State/ I hereby authorize The Publishing Society of New Jersey to enter my subscription for one copy of the same, for which I agree to> pay to them or to their order the sum of eighteen dollars upon delivery of the work to me at my residence or place of business, the work to be published in four volumes and bound in buckram.
“It will be delivered to subscribers as soon as convenient after publication.
“John N. Leisen, “Woodbridge, New Jersey.”
The only defence offered was presented by the testimony of the defendant, who swore that Mr. Town®, the plaintiff’s agent, came to him and told him about the work, and told him he just wanted to get some influential citizen to endorse the same; that the defendant did not read the slip, but signed his name to endorse the work to other citizens, and that he was in a hurry, and that Mr. Towne did not tell him that he was signing a contract for the book.
The question is whether this evidence warranted the submission of the matter to the jury in the face of a request that the court direct a verdict for the plaintiff.
We think a verdict for the plaintiff should have been directed.
The present judgment must be reversed and the case remitted to the District Court for a new trial.