Du Souchet v. Dutcher

15 N.E. 459, 113 Ind. 249, 1888 Ind. LEXIS 31
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 7, 1888
DocketNo. 13,143
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 15 N.E. 459 (Du Souchet v. Dutcher) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Du Souchet v. Dutcher, 15 N.E. 459, 113 Ind. 249, 1888 Ind. LEXIS 31 (Ind. 1888).

Opinion

Howk, J.

In this case the appellee, Hattie E. Dutcher, plaintiff below, alleged in her complaint that in 1881 the defendant, Sallie Du Souchet, proposed to plaintiff that she and defendant should rent and occupy together, for business purposes, the store No. —, on Main street, in the city of Evansville, plaintiff to use one side for a millinery store and defendant the other side for a cloak and dress store, each to have one-half the store with equal privileges, provided said store could be rented; that plaintiff, believing in defendant’s honesty and good faith, made an arrangement with defendant that the latter should interview Mrs. Scantlin, the owner of said store, with a view to rent it, and ascertain the lowest cash rent'for said premises and report to plaintiff; that defendant reported that said store could be rented for $100 per month, or $1,200 per year, and no less; that plaintiff, believing in and relying on defendant’s honesty and the truthfulness of her statement in relation to the rental of said store, accepted said proposition to take said store, each to pay one-half of the rent thereof; that it was then and there further agreed between defendant and plaintiff, that defendant, with her family, should occupy the whole of the second story for her own use as a dwelling, and for such exclusive use of said second story should allow plaintiff a rebate of $100 per annum on her half of the rent of said store. So, in good faith, and with this understanding, the said store was rented by defendant and was occupied under this agreement, plaintiff paying monthly one-half of the rent, as she then supposed, to defendant, plaintiff relying solely on the representations of defendant that she was paying monthly to said Scantlin the sum of $100, or $1,200 per annum.

And plaintiff averred that under such agreement defendant, with intent to deceive, cheat and defraud the plaintiff, took from plaintiff $600 per annum, less the rebate for the sole use of the second story for herself and family, for two years, amounting in the two years to $1,200 paid by plaintiff to defendant less said rebate, which, as plaintiff supposed at [251]*251the time, was one-half of said rent according to agreement, when in truth and in fact, as plaintiff has since learned, the whole of said store-rent paid by defendant to said Scantlin was $65 per month, or $780 per annum; that, so believing and relying upon the false and fraudulent representations made as aforesaid by defendant to plaintiff, she, plaintiff, paid to defendant, who received from her fraudulently the sum of. $420 more than her just due, which defendant then had without right, and refused to refund the same, to plaintiff’s damage, etc. "Wherefore, etc.

Defendant answered by a general denial of the complaint. The issues joined were tried by a jury, and a verdict was returned for plaintiff assessing her damages in the sum of $350, and over defendant’s motion for a new trial judgment was rendered on the verdict.

In this court defendant has assigned as error that plaintiff’s complaint herein does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. Defendant did not demur to the complaint for the alleged insufficiency of the facts therein to constitute a cause of action, nor did she even move the court below in arrest of judgment thereon; but, after trial, verdict and judgment, with all their curative virtues, she complains here for the first time that the facts averred by plaintiff in her complaint, the substance of which we have heretofore given, are not sufficient to constitute a cause of action. Our code provides, in effect, that the defendant, by his failure to demur, shall not be deemed to have waived the objection that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.” Section 343, R. S. 1881. This provision of the code, of course, authorizes the defendant to call in question here for the first time, as she has done, the sufficiency of the facts stated in plaintiff’s complaint to constitute a cause of action. When, however, the sufficiency of the complaint is thus called in question, it has been uniformly held by this court that, after verdict and judgment thereon, the complaint will be supported by every legal intendment; [252]*252and that it must wholly omit the averment of material facts, essential to the existence of the cause of action attempted to be stated therein, to authorize or justify the reversal of the judgment on account of the alleged insufficiency of such complaint. Donellan v. Hardy, 57 Ind. 393; Lassiter v. Jackman, 88 Ind. 118; Smith v. Smith, 106 Ind. 43; Becknell v. Becknell, 110 Ind. 42; Taylor v. Johnson, ante, p. 164.

Applying this doctrine to the complaint we are now considering, we have no difficulty in reaching the conclusion that the facts therein stated are amply sufficient, after verdict and judgment thereon, when challenged, as they are, by defendant’s assignment of error. Indeed, we think that it would have been error to have sustained a demurrer if one had been filed to such complaint upon the ground that the facts therein stated were not sufficient to constitute a cause of action. But,, however- that might have been, it is certain that sufficient facts were stated in such complaint to render the judgment, thereon a complete bar to any other suit for the same cause of action. In such case, as we have often held, the complaint is sufficient when called in question here for the first time. Donellan v. Hardy, supra; Field v. Burton, 71 Ind. 380; Beal v. State, ex rel., 77 Ind. 231.

The only other error assigned by appellant is predicated upon the overruling of his motion for a new trial. Under this error it is earnestly insisted by appellant’s learned counsel that the verdict of the jury was not sustained by sufficient evidence.

Without following counsel in their discussion of this question, it will suffice to say that we can not disturb the verdict on the evidence. The jury found their verdict on conflicting-evidence. With the parties as witnesses and the other evidence in the record before them, the jury manifestly believed the evidence offered by plaintiff in preference to that introduced by defendant, and returned their verdict in plaintiff’s favor.

The learned judge of the court below who presided at the [253]*253trial, and saw and heard the proceedings then and there had, refused to disturb the verdict, and denied defendant’s application for a new trial. We have carefully examined and considered all the evidence appearing in the record, as well for defendant as for the plaintiff, and it has seemed to us that the verdict is fairly sustained by such evidence on every material point. In such a case, as we have often decided, the verdict will not be disturbed here on the weight of the evidence. Rudolph v. Lane, 57 Ind. 115; Fort Wayne, etc., R. R. Co. v. Husselman, 65 Ind. 73; Campbell v. Indianapolis, etc., R. R. Co., 110 Ind. 490.

The trial court, of its own motion, gave the jury seven written instructions, to the second, third, fourth and fifth of which instructions defendant at the time excepted, and she assigned the giving of such instructions as cause for a new trial, in her motion therefor.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hamilton v. Cooley
184 N.E. 568 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1933)
Gulf Electric Co. v. Fried
119 So. 685 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1928)
In Re Estate of Cover
204 P. 583 (California Supreme Court, 1922)
Town of Cicero v. Lake Erie & Western Railroad
97 N.E. 389 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1912)
Larue v. American Diesel Engine Co.
96 N.E. 772 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1911)
Indianapolis & Northwestern Traction Co. v. Newby
90 N.E. 29 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1909)
W. J. Holliday & Co. v. Highland Iron & Steel Co.
87 N.E. 249 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1909)
Haas v. C. B. Cones & Son Manufacturing Co.
58 N.E. 499 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1900)
Bird v. St. John's Episcopal Church of Elkhart
56 N.E. 129 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1900)
McCreery v. Nordyke
53 N.E. 849 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1899)
Cromer v. State
52 N.E. 239 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1898)
McAfee v. Montgomery
51 N.E. 957 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1898)
Harter v. Parsons
42 N.E. 1025 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1896)
Island Coal Co. v. Neal
42 N.E. 953 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1896)
Lockhart v. Schlotterback
40 N.E. 1109 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1895)
Chicago, St. Louis & Pittsburgh Railroad v. Champion
36 N.E. 221 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1894)
Bozeman v. Cale
35 N.E. 828 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1893)
Noblesville Foundry & Machine Co. v. Yeaman
30 N.E. 10 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1892)
Board of Commissioners v. Chipps
16 L.R.A. 228 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1892)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
15 N.E. 459, 113 Ind. 249, 1888 Ind. LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/du-souchet-v-dutcher-ind-1888.