Gemmer v. Hunter

74 N.E. 586, 35 Ind. App. 501, 1905 Ind. App. LEXIS 113
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 23, 1905
DocketNo. 5,268
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 74 N.E. 586 (Gemmer v. Hunter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gemmer v. Hunter, 74 N.E. 586, 35 Ind. App. 501, 1905 Ind. App. LEXIS 113 (Ind. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

Kobinson, J.

In appellee’s claim against the estate of appellant’s decedent, it is averred that decedent during his lifetime was desirous of selling to appellee sixty acres of land, described, for the reason that he had no way to get to the land from any highway, and that the same could not be sold to any other tiran appellee, who owned adjoining land, for more than $10 an acre, and because the same was not at that time worth, even to appellee, $20 an acre; that when decedent found appellee would not give $30 an acre, and would give no more than $20, decedent proposed to appellee that if she would purchase the land at $30 an acre', amounting to $1,800, and secure tire payment thereof by executing to him nine promissory notes for $200 each, payable in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine years after their date of August 20, 1889, signed by herself and hus[503]*503band, with interest on all of the notes at eight per cent, from the 1st day of September, 1889, and execute a. mortgage on tire land and on appellee’s adjoining land to secure the payment of the notes, he would leave a will, bequeathing to appellee the difference between the price demanded — $30 an acre — and $20 an acre, to wit, $600, and the interest paid thereon by appellee; that appellee accepted this proposition, and thereupon, on August 20, 1889, the decedent and wife executed a deed conveying the land to appellee, and on the same day appellee and her husband executed to him the notes and mortgage as above mentioned; that appellee has fully paid all the notes and interest, and has performed all the terms of the contract to bo by her performed, but that decedent failed to comply with the contract; that he left a will at his death, in January, 1903, but wholly failed to make any provision therein for the payment of any sum. The complaint asks damages for breach of the above contract. Upon a trial a judgment was rendered upon the jury’s verdict in appellee’s favor.

Errors are assigned upon the overruling of the demurrer to the claim or complaint and the motion for a new trial.

1. It is well settled that a written contract can not bo enlarged or altered by prior or contemporaneous oral negotiations or agreements. It is also well settled that parol evidence is admissible to show the real consideration of a deed, and that the consideration may be shown to have been different from that expressed in the writing. McMahan v. Stewart (1864), 23 Ind. 590; Pickett v. Green (1889), 120 Ind. 584; Diven v. Johnson (1889), 117 Ind. 512, 3 L. R. A. 308; Reynolds v. Louisville, etc., R. Co. (1896), 143 Ind. 579, 614.

2. But it is argued by appellant’s counsel that the deed executed by appellant’s decedent to appellee, and the notes and mortgage executed to him by appellee, constituted a written agreement, which is not within the general rule that a consideration expressed in a deed or other written instru[504]*504ment may be varied by parol evidence. A promise, upon a valuable consideration, to bequeath a sum of money to another, is a valid contract, and an action will lie for its breach. Bell v. Hewitt’s Executors (1865), 24 Ind. 280; Caviness v. Rushton (1885), 101 Ind. 500, 51 Am. Rep. 759; Roehl v. Haumesser (1888), 114 Ind. 311; Woods v. Matlock (1898), 19 Ind. App. 364.

3. The proposition made and accepted was that if appellee would give the decedent $1,800 for land for which she was willing to give $1,200, and no more, decedent would bequeath to her the difference, with interest. When the contract between the parties was reduced to writing, the deed conveying the land was the consideration for the notes, and the notes constituted the consideration for the deed. They were all parts of the same transaction, and together constituted the contract. The deed conveyed the land to appellee, and, through the notes executed by appellee, she was bound to pay the consideration named. The pleading does not disclose that this informal written contract was, on its face, incomplete. See Singer Mfg. Co. v. Forsyth (1886), 108 Ind. 334.

The question arises: what was the consideration for the decedent’s promise to bequeath to appellee the $600 ? It must have been the execution by her of notes, payable to decedent, for $600 more than the land was worth to her. It is not averred in terms that this was the consideration for the decedent’s promise, but this must have been the consideration, if there was any; that is, the decedent executed the deed and made this promise in consideration that appellee execute the notes aggregating $1,800.

In Carr v. Hays (1887), 110 Ind. 408, Hays averred in his complaint that he and his wife conveyed to one Pettit, appellant’s decedent, certain lands, and on the same day, in consideration of such conveyance, Pettit executed a written contract in which he assumed and agreed to pay certain specified debts of Hays, and if Hays paid Pettit these [505]*505amounts, -with interest, within three years, then Pettit was to reconvey the land; that, as a further consideration for such deed, and as an inducement to Hays to execute such deed and accept such written contract, Pettit verbally agreed with Hays that he should continue to occupy the land for three years, and that within a reasonable time thereafter Pettit would furnish to Hays 500 yearling steers, to be kept by him three years on the lands so conveyed, and Hays should have absolute control of the land and steers during the three years; that Pettit allowed the land to be sold on foreclosure of a mortgage securing one of the above debts, and to be purchased at sheriffs sale, within less than six months, and that Pettit procured the land so sold to be conveyed to one Wilstach, whom Pettit caused to dispossess Hays within eighteen months of the time- it was conveyed to Pettit; that Hays was deprived of the use and enjoyment of the land, and was put to great expense defending possession; that Pettit did not furnish the steers; and that by reason of such failure of Pettit to furnish the steers, and to prevent the dispossession of Hays, he had been damaged. In the opinion the court said: “It is apparent from the foregoing summary of the second and third paragraphs of the claim or complaint herein, that the appellee has counted in each of such paragraphs exclusively upon the verbal contract of Benjamin D. Pettit, and has sought therein to recover damages for Pettit’s alleged breach of such verbal contract. Hnder the averments of these paragraphs of complaint, the warranty deed of appellee to Pettit, and the written contract given by Pettit to appellee, were both executed on the same day; each was the consideration for the execution of the other; they both constituted parts of one and the same transaction, and together they formed one and the same contract. In this contract, all oral negotiations and verbal agreements, precedent or concurrent, by or between the parties in relation to the subject-matter of such contract, were completely merged; and the two parts of such contract, [506]*506appellee’s deed and the writing executed by Pettit in consideration of such deed, became and were, the exclusive evidence of the only covenants and agreements, of or concerning the subject-matter of such contract, by which the respective parties, ultimately bound themselves.

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102 N.E. 155 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1913)
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Bluebook (online)
74 N.E. 586, 35 Ind. App. 501, 1905 Ind. App. LEXIS 113, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gemmer-v-hunter-indctapp-1905.