Bauer v. Roth

4 Rawle 83, 1833 Pa. LEXIS 7
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 4, 1833
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 4 Rawle 83 (Bauer v. Roth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bauer v. Roth, 4 Rawle 83, 1833 Pa. LEXIS 7 (Pa. 1833).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Kennedy, J.

The judgment given on the demurrers was no doubt wrong, but then the error is not such as the defendant below can complain of, for it is in his favour. The court upon being satisfied that the pleas demurred to were not sufficient in law to bar the plaintiffs of their action, ought, instead of a judgment of respondeat ouster, to have given a judgment quod recuperet. The judgment of respondeat ouster is merely interlocutory and never given either upon a demurrer or trial of a plea in bar. It is confined to a plea in abatement put in before, any plea in bar has been pleaded, and decided upon demurrer in favour of the plaintiff. See Tidd’s Prac. 693, 694, 8th edition. For if a plea puis darrien continuance be pleaded in abatement, after a former plea in bar, the judgment must be peremptory, whether given upon demurrer or on trial; because after pleading in bar, the defendant has answered in chief, and therefore can never have judgment to answer over. See Beaton v. Forrest, Aleyn, 65, 66. Abbot v. Rugesley, Frem. 252. Gilb. C. P. 105. 2 Tidd’s Pr. 902, 8th, edition. 1 Chitty’s Pl. 571. Bul. N. P. 310. In Stoner v. Gibson, Hob. 81, b. it is said, it was agreed, t-hat if the defendant pleaded in bar to the plaintiff’s ac-tion a plea which was good, and the plaintiff demurred to it, and the defendant pending the demurrer, pleaded another matter, puis darrein continuance, which is decided against him, either on demurrer or on trial, still he would be entitled to the benefit of his first plea, because it being a good bar to the plaintiff’s action, and standing confessed by him upon the record, he can not have a judgment in his favour against his own confessio'n. This, if correct, would seem to form an exception to the general rule laid down in the book above cited. But whether a plea puis darrein continuance can be received at all after a demurrer, has been doubted in Staple v. Heydon, 6 Mod. 7, by Powell J ustice; in Martin v. Wyvill, 1 Stran. 493, per Eyre Justice, who cited Moore, 871, and in Sparks v. Crofts, 1 Lord Raym. 266, per Holt, Chief Justice, although he said, Stoner v. Gibson, Hob. 81, was so. But according to the. report of this case in Moore, 871, pl. 1210, which is directly contrary to Hobart, it was resolved that a plea puis darrein continuance could not be pleaded after demurrer. See 1 Chitty’s Pl. 572, 573.

That the plea of nil debet upon demurrer in this case was bad, can admit of no doubt. If the bond declared on here had only been introduced as inducement to the action, nil debet might, or might not have been a good plea. In debt for rent claimed under a lease by indenture it is a good plea, because the indenture is not considered the gist of the action. It does not acknowledge a debt like an obli[93]*93gation; the debt accrues by the subsequent enjoyment of the demised premises under it, and it will be received as evidence to shew the relation of landlord and tenant, between the plaintiff’and defendant, and the amount of rent, and when payable, Gilb. C. P. 62, 63. But this action is grounded upon the bond itself, and therefore nil debet was not a good plea. See Jones v. Pope, 1 Saund. 38, and the case cited in note 3.

The plaintiffs below alleged as cause for their demurrer to the next plea, that the matters therein contained, were such as might have been given in evidence under the general issue, which had been previously pleaded.

I am inclined to believe that the attorney of the plaintiffs was mistaken in this when he assigned it as cause for demurrer; because, it was not sufficient in law to avoid the bond, and therefore could not have been given in evidence on the general issue; but had it been sufficient for that purpose, then I think, without a doubt, it would have been admissible on the general issue; but still I think, notwithstanding that, the plea would also have been good, and the defendant below upon the demurrer of the plaintiffs to it would have been entitled to a peremptory judgment, that would have discharged him at once from all further claim of the plaintiffs upon the writing here declared on. The substance of the plea is, that the defendant below, with Jacob Bauer and George Keim, agreed to join in the execution of a bond to Peter Roth alone, one of the plaintiffs below, to indemnify him, &c. and positively refused to be bound to John Roth, the other plaintiff, in any manner or form whatever to indemnify him, &c. either severally, or jointly and severally with Peter Roth, and that neither of them being able to read the writing, nor to understand the English language in which it was drawn up, they all signed it upon trust, and delivered it to Peter Roth, without having heard it read, or explained, or interpreted, or having requested it to be so in any way, believing that it was written in exact conformity to their previous agreement. The plea does not state how or why the deviation from their agreement, in writing the bond came to be made, whether by fraud of the plaintiffs below, or mistake of the scrivener, nor attempt to account for it in any way. Now if these circumstances thus set forth, had been sufficient in law, to have prevented the instrument from becoming their deed, notwithstanding they had signed, sealed and delivered it, without requesting it to be read, interpreted or explained in any way, the plea would have been good according to the established rules of pleading, because it would then have disclosed matters unnecessary for the plaintiffs to have proved on the plea of non est factum, in order to have established the writing to be the deed of the defendant below, but yet sufficient to have shewn that it never was his deed. He in his plea confessed the signing, sealing and delivery of the instrument, in conjunction with Jacob Bauer and George Keim, which is all that the plaintiffs below have charged in their declaration, and is like[94]*94wise all that was necessary for the plaintiffs in the first instance to have proved on the general issue: and besides this, for the purpose of avoiding the bond he has also set forth the other matters, which were not immediately and necessarily connected with the sealing and delivery of a deed, and of course such as the plaintiffs on the general ' issue could not have been required to give evidence of; and had they only been sufficient in law, to have avoided the bond, it would have been clearly competent for the defendant to have pleaded them specially as he has done. See 1 Chitty’s Pl. 442, 443. It would have fallen within the principle of the case of a deed delivered as an escrow, to be delivered to the party in whose favour it is made upon the performance of a certain condition ; he however gets it into his possession without the performance of the condition, and without the consent of the party who executed the deed, all which may be either pleaded specially or given in evidence on the general issue, 1 Chitty’s Pl. 424, 425; or where the obligor is a monk or a feme covert, it may be given in evidence under the general issue or a special non est factum, Com. Dig. title Pleader, 2 W. 18. In these latter cases it has been so settled on' the ground of an entire want of capacity on the part of a monk or a feme covert

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
4 Rawle 83, 1833 Pa. LEXIS 7, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bauer-v-roth-pa-1833.