Fayter v. North

83 P. 742, 30 Utah 156, 1906 Utah LEXIS 60
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 4, 1906
DocketNo. 1640
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 83 P. 742 (Fayter v. North) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fayter v. North, 83 P. 742, 30 Utah 156, 1906 Utah LEXIS 60 (Utah 1906).

Opinions

BARTCIí, O. J.,

after stating the facts, delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellant insists, among other things, that the court erred in permitting the introduction of evidence respecting the conversations between the vendor and the vendee and admissions of the vendor had and made, at the time the bargain of sale was made and when the deed was executed, concerning the drain ditch, and use of the water flowing therein, because, as is urged, such evidence was inadmissible as varying the terms of a written conveyance. This objection to the admission of the testimony referred to is, under the circumstances, not well founded. We recognize the general rule, declared by many of the authorities cited by the appellants, that, where contracting parties have reduced their agreement to writing, the terms expressed cannot be varied by parol; the writing itself being the evidence of the agreement. The testimony covered by the objection in this case, however, was introduced for no such purpose. It was introduced, not to vary the terms of the deed, but to explain a latent ambiguity, and to show what was in the minds of the contracting parties — what was intended should pass under the terms “privileges and appurtenances” employed in the instrument. The testimony was not only admissible for such purpose, but as evidence of the condition of the property when the bargain of sale was made, and to show how the parties themselves construed and applied [165]*165tbe contract to tbe subject-matter. Tbe trouble here is uot that tbe terms employed are insensible, having no settled meaning, but that they are admissible of several interpretations with reference to the subject-matter in contemplation at tbe time of tbe making of tbe contract. Tbe terms employed may or may not include tbe right to tbe water flowing in tbe ditch in question as a part of tbe subject of sale. It is admitted, however, that water rights in another ditch did pass under and by virtue of tbe same terms, without specific mention in tbe instrument, and, such being tbe case, it became properly a matter for investigation dehors tbe instrument, to determine whether the disputed rights in tbe drain ditch did not also pass. That such rights may pass with tbe land by conveyance was recognized by our statute (section 2183, Gomp. Laws 1888).

When, therefore, tbe appellants claim that tbe right to tbe use of tbe water from one ditch is not embraced in those terms, and at tbe same time admit that such a right in another ditch is embraced in them, both ditches being upon tbe same land and equally obvious to tbe parties while making tbe contract of sale, and neither one of tbe ditches being mentioned specifically in tbe conveyance, they themselves attach one meaning to tbe terms in tbe one instance and a different meaning to them in tbe other, and thereby admit that the terms as employed are susceptible of different meanings, and hence that there exists a latent ambiguity. Such being the case, how, or by what means, is the court to interpret those terms ? How is it to ascertain what was in the minds of the contracting parties at the time of the sale — what things they intended to include in the conveyance by the use of the terms in question ? The instrument itself affords no means whereby to ascertain the meaning of the parties; no specific reference to any ditch or water right being contained therein. Clearly, therefore, evidence dehors the instrument was not only admissible, but necessary to place the court in-the light of the surrounding circumstances existing at the time of the transaction, so as to enable it to perceive what was in fact included in the general terms employed in the writing. Whenever the [166]*166.terms of a written instrument are susceptible of more tban one interpretation, or a latent ambiguity arises, or the extent and object of the instrument cannot be ascertained from the language employed, parol evidence is admissible to show the sense which the contracting parties attached to the terms or language employed in the instrument; and for this purpose the acts and conversations of the parties, at or about and subsequent to the time of the transaction, relating to the subject-matter constitute proper evidence.

“In the light of what was said and done at the time of a transaction, of the conduct of the parties thereafter, and of the interpretation which they themselves have placed upon it, a court is more likely to arrive at the real meaning and intent of the parties when the terms employed in an instrument are indefinite or ambiguous. Such evidence is not received to vary the language of the writing, hut to explain what was meant by its use. It serves to explain the subject-matter, and enables the court to determine what the instrument referred to and embraced. Its object is to elucidate the meaning of the parties.” (Brown v. Markland, 16 Utah 360, 52 Pac. 597, 67 Am. St. Rep. 629.)

In Wood’s Practice Evidence, section 25, the author says:

“The rule that parol evidence is admissible to explain and apply a writing, where it does not contradict or vary it, is universal in its application, and is in accordance with another rule which is well recognized, that a writing may be read in the light of surrounding circumstances in order that the true intent and meaning of the parties may be arrived at, and that independent and collateral facts, about which the contract is silent, may be shown by parol. The surrounding circumstances, and subsequent conduct and acts of the parties, are material and competent to show the interpretation which they put on an agreement, and what conditions they have waived. It is allowable also, in many instances, to show in evidence pre-existing and contemporaneous facts and circumstances attending the negotiations of the parties in making the contract as such facts often throw light upon the disputed contract itself.”

And in section 26 he says:

“Parol evidence may be admitted to prove a collateral agreement connected with stipulations in a deed, and in no respect repugnant to it.”

[167]*167So in Taylor on Evidence, section 1194, vol. 2, it is said:

“It may be laid down as a broad and distinct rule of law that extrinsic evidence of every material fact, -which will enable the court to ascertain the nature and qualities of the subject-matter of the instrument, or in other words, to identify the persons and things to which the instrument refers, must of necessity be received. Whatever the nature of the document under review, the object is to discover the intention of the writer as evidenced by the words he has used; and, in order to do this, the judge must put himself in the writer’s place, and then see how the terms of the instrument affect the property or subject-matter.”

In Browne, Par. Ev. section 54, speaking of written contracts, tbe author says:

“The conversations and acts of the parties, at and about the time of the making of the contract, as well as subsequent to the making of the contract, are admissible in evidence to show what sense the parties attached to any term or phrase used in the contract, which is in itself susceptible of more than one interpretation, or which, viewed in the light of the evidence explanatory of the subject-matter, the relations of the parties, and the circumstances, may reasonably be susceptible of more than one interpretation.”

In Ganson v. Madigan, 15 Wis. 158, 82 Am. Dec. 659, Mr. Chief Justice Dixon, speaking of written contracts, said:

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Bluebook (online)
83 P. 742, 30 Utah 156, 1906 Utah LEXIS 60, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fayter-v-north-utah-1906.