Gibson v. Cruickshank

248 P. 732, 78 Cal. App. 652, 1926 Cal. App. LEXIS 365
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 10, 1926
DocketDocket No. 4434.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 248 P. 732 (Gibson v. Cruickshank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gibson v. Cruickshank, 248 P. 732, 78 Cal. App. 652, 1926 Cal. App. LEXIS 365 (Cal. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

CONREY, P. J.

It appears from the amended complaint, which was filed hy one J. S. Gibson, that a check for $725 was made and delivered on the twenty-fifth day of June, 1920, as part payment to plaintiff on account of one Samson sieve-grip tractor, sold and delivered by the plaintiff to the defendant for the agreed price of $1,450. It further appears from the amended complaint that in addition to the check, the defendant at the same time executed and delivered to *654 plaintiff two promissory notes, also dated Jane 25, 1920, in favor of the plaintiff, each note in the principal stun of $362.50, with interest, which notes were payable in three months and six months, respectively, after date; that said notes were accepted by plaintiff to cover the balance of said purchase price. It was further alleged that on June 29, 1920, the defendant stopped payment on said check, and has refused to pay the amount therein specified as set forth in said check or at all, and that the said sum covered by said check remains due, owing and unpaid from defendant to plaintiff. Plaintiff’s action is on the check alone and not on the notes.

By his amended answer to the amended complaint defendant denied the sale or delivery by the plaintiff J. S. Gibson of said tractor, but alleged that on June 25, 1920, he agreed to purchase from one O. C. Hathaway a tractor (giving the same diseription as in the amended complaint), for the sum of $1,450, “payable $725.00 on delivery of said tractor, and two notes for $362.50 each, payable three and six months after date, respectively, upon the conditions hereinafter set forth.” The amended answer then set forth certain representations and warranties made by Hathaway to defendant which defendant believed, and so believing and relying thereon, entered into said contract. The amended answer alleged falsity of the representations, and breaches of warranty; also that defendant stopped payment on said cheek and gave notice of rescission, etc.

As a separate defense the defendant admitted that he agreed to purchase the tractor from the plaintiff, but alleged that the agreement was made through plaintiff’s agent, Hathaway, and upon the like representations and warranties as stated in the first defense, it being now in the second defense alleged that said representations and warranties were made through plaintiff’s agent, Hathaway.

With his answer the defendant filed a cross-complaint, based upon the same transactions hereinabove mentioned, and sought to recover the sum of $160 expended by the defendant in attempting to work and operate the tractor, and also demanded judgment that the check and notes be delivered up to defendant for cancellation, or judgment for the amount thereof in case delivery could not be had. Plaintiff’s demurrer to the answer and his demurrer to the cross- *655 complaint being overruled, the plaintiff filed an answer to the cross-complaint, thereby completing the issues on which the case was tried.

Thereafter, it being made to appear that J. S. Gibson had transferred to R. H. Gibson all of J. S. Gibson’s rights in and to the plaintiff’s cause of action, the present appellant, R. H. Gibson, was substituted as plaintiff. It was after such substitution that the case was tried by the court and judgment rendered to the effect that plaintiff take nothing, and that the defendant recover from plaintiff possession of said promissory notes, or, in case delivery thereof cannot be made, that defendant recover from plaintiff the sum of $725, with interest, etc. From this judgment the plaintiff appeals.

In its findings the court found that at the stated time defendant agreed to purchase from J. S. Gibson through O. C. Hathaway, his agent, the described tractor for the agreed price of $1,450, payable $725 upon delivery of the tractor, and the balance by the promissory notes; and that the check and notes were delivered. The court then found as follows:

“III. That for the purpose of inducing the defendant to enter into said agreement to purchase said tractor the said J. S. Gibson by his agent O. C. Hathaway represented and warranted to defendant that said tractor could and would haul defendant’s grain separator to, upon and from any field where defendant might desire to take same for the purpose of threshing grain, and would furnish power to operate said separator in threshing grain; that the defendant believed said representations and warranty and so believing them to be true and in reliance upon them agreed to purchase said tractor as aforesaid, and it was agreed by said J. S. Gibson that if said tractor did not and could not do the work it was represented and warranted it could do, as above set forth, defendant would not have to carry out said agreement of purchase.

“IV. That said representations and warranty were and are each and all false and untrue. That after the delivery of said tractor to the defendant he made various trials of said tractor in attempting to use the same in hauling his said separator; that in all of said trials said tractor was operated with proper care and skill at all times but it was *656 not possible to make the same work or to develop power to haul said separator, and said tractor was not and never was reasonably or at all fit for the said purpose of hauling said separator or of operating the same in threshing grain, and said tractor did not at any time work so as to comply with the warranty or conditions upon which said defendant agreed to buy same.

“V. That on the 29th day of June, 1920, defendant stopped payment on said check for $725.00 and it has not been paid, and on or about the 5th day of July, 1920, defendant notified the plaintiff through his agent O. C. Hathaway that said tractor could not do the work it was represented it would do and that it did not meet the conditions upon which it was sold, and that he rescinded said agreement of purchase and tendered said tractor back to the plaintiff and demanded of him the return of said promissory notes and check, but to return same plaintiff refused.”

Appellant contends that if the findings be understood as affirming that there was not a completed sale of the tractor, they are contrary to the evidence. The tractor was .delivered. The check and the notes contained recitals that they were given by way of “payment” on the tractor. And the findings do indicate a completed sale, down to the point where they say that' “it was agreed by said J. S. Gibson that if said tractor did not and could not do the work it was- represented and warranted to do, as above set forth, defendant would not have to carry out said agreement of purchase.”

There was no written evidence other than the check and the notes. Appellant contends that “the admission of parol evidence, tending to establish parol warranties and adding conditions to the written promise to pay, in the form of the check and notes, was reversible error.” But if we accept appellant’s theory, which appears to be correct, that the check and the notes were given and taken in payment of the purchase price, then they were parts, not of the contract, but only of its performance. The contract itself was made altogether by oral statements. Therefore there was no error in receiving testimony concerning those statements.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
248 P. 732, 78 Cal. App. 652, 1926 Cal. App. LEXIS 365, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gibson-v-cruickshank-calctapp-1926.