77 Iowa 569 | Iowa | 1889
I. In view of the fact that questions in the case involve the sufficiency of the petition, it becomes necessary to set it out quite fully. The parts material to the decision of the case are in these words: “ Comes now the plaintiff, and for cause of action says that on or about the first day of August, 1887, the plaintiff and the defendant herein entered into a verbal agreement, by the terms of which plaintiff agreed to convey to defendant certain real property situated in Plymouth county, Iowa, to-wit: * * * That the defendant, in consideration therefor, agreed to convey to the plaintiff the following described real estate, in the town' of Lucerne, in the county of San Diego, California, to-wit: * * * And, as further consideration for the land agreed to be conveyed to him by plaintiff, promised and agre'ed to make improvements on land owned by him in the vicinity of the property so agreed to be sold to plaintiff, to-wit: To cause to be erected a large nail factory, terra-cotta works, a large hotel building, and to build a large building, in which would be opened a bank, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars; and to erect, and to cause to be erected, many other.large and substantial buildings on land then owned by him, the said defendant, in the immediate vicinity of the said lots, the erection of which would have very materially increased
To this petition defendant demurred in the following language: “(1) Said petition does not state facts sufficient to entitle him to the relief demanded, or any other relief, in this: That there is no averment in plaintiff’s petition that the defendant made any false or fraudulent statement or representations to plaintiff respecting the lots mentioned and described in said petition. All the statements set out in plaintiff’s petition, and which are averred to be false and fraudulent, amount to nothing more than á promise on the part of'the defendant that he would make the improvements mentioned in said petition upon his own property at some time in the future, or they relate to a condition of things about the truth of which the plaintiff had the same opportunity for obtaining correct information as the defendant; and there is no averment with respect to these alleged false statements in said petition that defendant fraudulently did anything to induce plaintiff to forbear inquiry as to the truth of such alleged fraudulent statements. (2) That the alleged fraudulent misrepresentations or statements are wholly immaterial, in that they do not relate to any ascertainable fact as distinguished from matters of opinion, intention, probability or expectation, and they are therefore not fraudulent in law. (3) Representations, to induce a vendee to purchase property, to be fraudulent, must relate to a present or past state of
II. Attention to the petition will disclose the fact that it seeks to recover on two grounds:
Reversed.