Crouch & Son v. Parker

125 N.E. 453, 188 Ind. 660, 7 A.L.R. 1598, 1919 Ind. LEXIS 94
Indiana Supreme Court·Decided December 17, 1919·No. No. 23,604·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinion

Willoughby, J.

— On December 29, 1908, Crouch and Son, appellants, sold and delivered to Robert H. Parker, also named as appellant, a certain stallion at the agreed price of $1,950, for which sum the said Robert H. Parker and his mother, Hannah Parker, appellee, executed their three several promissory notes each calling for $650 and interest. As a part of the contract of sale, and contemporaneously with the execution and delivery of said notes, the said Crouch and Son, hereinafter designated as appellants, executed and delivered to said Robert H. Parker their written contract, by which they warranted said stallion to be a “satisfactory sure breeder,” and agreed that if said horse should not be as warranted, they would, on or before April 1, 1910, take him back, if delivered to them at Lafayette, Indiana, and give in exchangé another stallion of equal value and of the same breed.

[662] The horse did not prove to be as warranted, and appellants were so notified prior to April 1, 1910, whereupon appellants, without the knowledge or consent of appellee, extended said warranty for a period of one year, at the expiration of which time, and on April 13, 1911, appellants entered into a new agreement with Robert H. Parker, by the terms of which appellants surrendered to said Parker the note due April 1, 1910, on which there was a balance due in the sum of $324.34, and said Robert H. Parker released said appellants from all liability on said warranty. Thereafter the last of the three $650 notes became due, was unpaid, and this action was begun by appellants against Robert H. Parker and appellee to collect said note. Appellee filed four affirmative paragraphs of answer designated as the second, third, fourth and fifth paragraphs, also, a crpss-complaint against appellants. Separate demurrers for want of facts were filed to these answers and to the cross-complaint, which demurrers were overruled, except the demurrer to the fifth paragraph of answer, which was sustained. Appellants’ reply in denial to the several paragraphs of answer, and their answer in denial to the cross-complaint, closed the issues, and the cause was submitted to a jury, resulting in a verdict and judgment against Robert H. Parker for the full amount of the note, and a verdict in favor of appellee. Appellants’ motion for a new trial was overruled. The errors relied on for reversal are: (1) The rulings of the court on the demurrers to the three affirmative paragraphs of answer and the ruling of the court on the demurrer to the third paragraph of the cross-complaint of appellee; and (2) the overruling of the motion for a new trial.

[663] 1. [662] The court having specially instructed the jury that in their deliberations they should consider only the third [663] and fourth, paragraphs of appellee’s answer, there is no available error in the action of the court in overruling appellants’ demurrer to the second paragraph of answer. Life Assurance Co. v. Houghton (1903), 31 Ind. App. 626, 628, 67 N. E. 950.

The third and fourth paragraphs of answer each aver that the note sued on and the warranty given by appellants were contemporaneously executed and delivered; that the execution and delivery of the warranty was a consideration for appellee’s execution of the note as surety; that the stallion was not as warranted, and that the extension of the warranty was without her knowledge and consent, as was the new agreement of April 13, 1911. The only objection to these paragraphs of answer which appellants specified in their memorandum to. the demurrers thereto is that appellee “had not executed the warranty, was not a party to it, and therefore has no right to base a defense thereon.” The question thus presented for our consideration is whether or not the changes in the original contract, which changes were made by agreement between the principal on the note and the appellants, without the knowledge of appellee, discharged appellee as surety. Appellants concede that if appellee had been a party named in the warranty, the extension and surrender of that instrument without her consent would have released her from liability on the note; but they contend that, inasmuch as her name does not appear in the warranty, she is not released.

2. A contract of sale and the warranty of the chattel sold, executed at the same time, constitute one contract. LaGrange v. Coyle (1911), 50 Ind. App. 140, 98 N. E. 75; McCarty v. Williams (1914), 58 Ind. App. 440, 108 N. E. 370; Shordan v. Kyler (1882), 87 Ind. 38, 41.

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Crouch & Son v. Parker, 125 N.E. 453, 188 Ind. 660, 7 A.L.R. 1598, 1919 Ind. LEXIS 94 (Ind. 1919).

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