The judge rightly excluded evidence of the four matters of damage which the plaintiff offered to prove. Without inquiring whether they would, under any form of declaration, have been legal grounds of damage, it is sufficient for the decision of this case, that they were not the necessary consequences of the defendant’s breach of agreement, which are implied by law; and were not alleged in the declaration. Nor were they consequences which (in the language sometimes used by judges) “ in all probability ” might follow, or would be “ very likely to follow,” from that breach. See Richardson v. Mellish, 2 Bing. 239; Goslin v. Corry, 7 Man. & Gr. 346; Ferrer v. Beale, 1 Ld. Raym. 692 ; 1 Chit. Pl. (6th Amer. ed.) 370, 441; 2 Greenl. Ev. § 254. “ Mere collateral damage,” says Holroyd, J., “ must be stated in the declaration, in order to. entitle the plaintiff to give it in evidence, lest otherwise the defendant might be taken by surprise.” Battley v. Faulkner, 3 B. & Ald. 294. And this rule of the common law is not changed by the practice act of 1852, c. 312. Baldwin v. Western Railroad, 4 Gray, 336.
Our judgment is, that the continued withholding of a conveyance of the Egremont estate, after the 28th of January (the date of the writ) till the 11th of May, when the conveyance was made, is not a damage recoverable in this action. We think the case is more analogous to those in which damage sustained after action brought has been held not to be recoverable, than to those in which it has been held that it may be recovered.
In Hambleton v. Veere, 2 Saund. 169, the declaration was for the defendant’s procuring the plaintiff’s apprentice to depart from his service, and for loss of that service for the residue (four years) of the term of apprenticeship. Judgment was arrested, because the jury assessed damages generally, as declared for; the court saying the plaintiff “ ought to have recovered damages for the loss of service until the exhibiting of the bill only, and
The same rule of damages is applied to actions for an obstruction, which may be temporary, of a stream of water, of a way, or of light and air. Duncan v. Markley, Harper, 276. Cole v. Sprowl, 35 Maine, 161. Blunt v. McCormick, 3 Denio, 283. But if the obstruction be permanent, so that the plaintiff can no more have the flow of a stream, or the enjoyment of a way, or light or air, then all the damages which he sustains from the destruction of his rights are recoverable. Troy v. Cheshire Railroad, 3 Foster, 83. And if this defendant had conveyed the estate to a third person, before this action was brought, and thus made himself unable to convey it afterwards, the plaintiff would have been entitled to all the damages sustained by the loss of the estate. But the facts of the case show only a temporary withholding of the plaintiff’s rights, for which, as in the cases above cited, damages have been held recoverable only to the time of action commenced.
It might have been wise in the defendant, if he had not objected to the recovery of damage sustained by the plaintiff between the date of his writ and the day when the conveyance was made. In Goslin v. Corry, 7 Man. & Gr. 345, where a defendant, on the trial of an action'for a libel, permitted evidence to be given of damage caused after action brought, Tindal, C. J. said: “ By permitting this evidence to be given, the defendant may possibly have escaped a second action brought x
The plaintiff then brought a second action in the court oí common pleas, on the same agreement, to recover the special damages which accrued to him between the date of the first writ and the 11th of May 1855, and set forth the same breach, but alleged specially in his declaration the four items of damage which he attempted to prove at the first trial.
The defendant in his answer alleged, 1st. The former judgment ; 2d. Performance of the agreement by the defendant, and nonperformance by the plaintiff; 3d. That the defendant was induced to make the agreement by false and fraudulent representations of the plaintiff as to the value, condition and incumbrances of the estate in Brooklyn, by reason of which the defendant had been obliged to spend $500 thereon ; 4th. A denial of the alleged items of damage.
The parties submitted the case to the court of common pleas, and, on appeal, to this court, upon the facts stated in the above report of the first trial; admitting, “ for the purpose of the hearing upon this statement of facts, that the plaintiff suffered some injury by the defendant’s said breach of the contract, which was not recovered and was not admitted to be proved in the first action; ” and agreeing “ that if the foregoing facts constitute a defence to this action, the plaintiff shall become nonsuit; otherwise, the ease shall stand for trial upon the questions presented by the other issues made by the declaration and answer.”
This case was argued at this term by the same counsel, and the decision was made in June 1858.
If the damages now sued for could have been recovered in the former action, they cannot be recovered in this But it does not follow, as of course, that they can be recovered now because they were not allowed to be recovered then. A plaintiff may fail to recover all the damages he is entitled to, by not so framing his declaration as to cover them all, or by not so managing his case as to bring the full damages to the consul
The damages now demanded are those only which the plain-' tiff sustained, if at all, after the commencement of the former action. For all previous damages he has recovered, or might have recovered, in that action, his full legal recompense.
The declaration in this case sets forth four grounds of damage. First, the plaintiff’s deprivation, after the first action was brought and until the Egremont estate was conveyed to him, of the benefit and advantage which he would have enjoyed from the full title to it during that interval. Second, the expenses incurred by him in preparing to build a barn on his other land, by reason of his not obtaining a legal right to place thereon a barn that was on the land which the defendant had agreed to convey to him. Third, his loss of the use, improvement and income of the estate in Brooklyn which he conveyed to the defendant. Fourth, the loss of the rents of the estate that was to be conveyed to him; the defendant having collected them.
The second and third grounds of the plaintiff’s claim are easily disposed of. He has no legal cause of action for either; and would not have been entitled to damages for the second, even if the defendant had never conveyed the estate to him. That ground of damage is too remote; not being a proximate consequence of the defendant’s breach of agreement. Sibley v. Hoar, 4 Gray, 222. Blood v. Nashua & Lowell Railroad, 2 Gray, 137. Waite v. Gilbert, 10 Cush. 177. 2 Greenl. Ev. § 256. The third ground is to be regarded precisely as if the plaintiff had paid money as the consideration for the stipulated
The question on the first and fourth grounds of the plaintiff’s present claim is, whether they constitute a new cause of action, or are only new damages resulting from the original cause of action. A fresh action cannot be brought unless there be both a new unlawful act and fresh damage. Howell v. Young, 5 B. & C. 267. Hodsoll v. Stallebrass, 11 Ad. & El. 306, and 3 P. & Dav. 203. Whitney v. Clarendon, 18 Verm. 258. The application of this doctrine is not always easy, and perhaps has not always been rightly or consistently made.
In actions for injury to the person of the plaintiff or his servant, by battery, or by accident on a highway or railroad, &c., it is the settled law that damages may be given for all that the plaintiff may suffer in future from the injury. The jury are to estimate, as well as they may from the evidence before them, all the loss and damage which the plaintiff has sustained or will sustain. And when damages have been once recovered, no new action can be maintained for sufferings afterwards endured from the unforeseen effect of the original injury. Fetter v. Beal, 1 Ld. Raym. 339, 692, 12 Mod. 542, and 1 Salk. 11. Black v. Carrolton Railroad, 10 Louis. Ann. R. 33. Curtiss v. Rochester & Syracuse Railroad, 20 Barb. 282. 11 Ad. & El. ubi sup. And, as was stated in the opinion in the former case, the law is the same when one is deprived of the enjoyment of a right to
On these grounds and authorities, we are of opinion that the continued omission of the defendant, after the former action was commenced, to make a conveyance to the plaintiff, was a new cause of action, and not merely a new damage. If it were a new damage merely, that damage should have been allowed to be recovered in the former suit.
The agreement on which this action is brought was never rescinded. It has been hitherto treated by both parties as an open and continuing agreement. If it had been rescinded, the plaintiff must have sought his remedy, not by an action for the breach of it, but by some different action. See Canada v. Canada, 6 Cush. 17; Goodman v. Pocock, 15 Ad. & El. N. R. 576 ; Hochster v. De La Tour, 2 El. & Bl. 678.
The case of Clossman v. Lacoste another, 28 Eng. Law & Eq. 140, strongly resembles this. There the plaintiff had agreed to serve the defendants for five years, and they had agreed to guaranty to him a certain sum yearly during the continuance of the agreement. After the five years had expired, the plaintiff brought an action on the agreement, alleging that the defendants had not guarantied nor paid the stipulated sum for his services during the fourth and fifth years. The defendants pleaded in bar a former recovery by the plaintiff in the court of exchequer, for their default in not paying him for his services during the first and second years, and for dispensing with his services during the whole of the third year. “ This plea,” said Lord Campbell, “ is bad, unless the cause of action in the present case is the same as that in the action in the court of exchequer, and the damages recoverable now could have been recovered in that action. 1 am of opinion that these damages could not have been recovered in that action, and that the dam
The result in the present case is, that the plaintiff is entitled to recover the legal damage sustained by him between the time when the former action was commenced and the time when the conveyance of the estate was made to him, by reason of his not having, during that interval, a full title to that estate. As he was in possession, that damage cannot be great.
He may also recover the amount of the rent which he would have been entitled to if the estate had been conveyed to him at the stipulated time, namely, the rent which was accruing at that time, and which the defendant received during ttie aforesaid interval. Stone v. Knight, 23 Pick. 97. Burden v. Thayer, 3 Met. 76. Taking what appears in the declaration in this case, in connection with what appeared in the former action, our inference is, that a portion of the estate was under lease to a tenant, when the agreement in suit was made, and that the defendant, before conveying the reversion to the plaintiff, collected the rent reserved in that lease. This will be matter of evidence hereafter.
Unless these two matters of damage are adjusted by the parties, the case is to go to a jury. But the matter of the plaintiff’s misrepresentation and fraud, set out in the defendant’s answer, cannot be shown on the trial oi 'his action, either by way of bar, set-off or recoupment.
