Graf v. Holcombe

277 F. 687, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2512
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedDecember 21, 1921
DocketNo. 5759
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 277 F. 687 (Graf v. Holcombe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Graf v. Holcombe, 277 F. 687, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2512 (8th Cir. 1921).

Opinions

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

This is an action at law by John H. Holcombe against John O.1 Graf to recover damages for the latter’s alleged false representations that deceived the plaintiff and induced him to sell and convey to the defendant his farm of 512 acres in Richardson county, Neb., subject to mortgages of $60,000, for $15,000 cash, a note and a mortgage of the defendant for $7,500, and seven pieces of the property of the defendant, subject to a mortgage on one of them for $1,000, recited in the contract of sale to have been of the value of $37,800, making the amount paid by the defendant in the aggregate $65,300. In his complaint the plaintiff averred that he had been induced to make the sale and convey his land to the defendant by the latter’s misrepresentations of the character and value of the property which the defendant agreed to convey and did convey to him. The defendant denied these allegations of false representations, and alleged that he had been deceived and induced to convey his property to the plaintiff by the latter’s false representations as to the character of the 512 acres that he conveyed to him, and asked for damages therefor. The plaintiff denied that he had made any such representations. The issues were tried for many days before a jury, which finally returned a verdict for $12,430 in favor of the plaintiff.

The defendant’s first complaint of the trial is that the court erred in admitting in evidence a typewritten statement of the property of the defendant and of its value, which the latter agreed to convev and [689]*689did convey to the plaintiff. This statement was marked Exhibit 1, and it read in this way:

Exhibit i.
Description.
New brick barn................................................... $4,000
Brick store building............................................... 4,000
One business lot................................................... 4,000
160 acres in Loup county, Neb...................................... 4,800
10 acres near Omaha............................................... 6,000
80 acres in Hay county, Mo......................................... 12,000
4 vacant lots in Frederick, Okl...................................... 2,800
6 lots with improvements, Frederick................................ 4,200
Total ............................................................ $88,800
Incumbrances ..................................................... 1,000
Net valuation...............................................$87,800

The first three pieces of property' in this statement, aggregating $9,000 therein, were in Tecumseli, Neb., and are known as the Tecumseh property. The record discloses these facts relevant to the admission of this statement in evidence. Mr. Healy and Mr. Jones were real estate agents, who conducted some business for the defendant Graf. Mr. Healy telephoned the plaintiff to meet him and some one who wished to purchase Mr. Holcombe’s farm at Falls City. The plaintiff went there and met Mr. Healy, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Graf. He testified that he had never seen Mr. Graf before, and to these facts:

They went into the country and examined the plaintiff’s farm of 512 acres and returned to the hotel at Falls City. In this hotel, after their return they first discussed the prices and the terms of the sale. The plaintiff offered to sell his farm for $250 per acre, the defendant offered him $225, and their minds finally met on $235 per acre as the price of the farm. For this farm Mr. Graf said he would give $15,-000 in cash, assume incumbrances on the farm of $60,000, give another mortgage back for $7,000, and give some property which he had that was worth $38,800, with $1,000 incumbrance on it. Mr. Graf had the typewritten list—Exhibit 1— and was using it in showing the plaintiff the property while this conversation was going on. The plaintiff produced this exhibit after this testimony, and in answer to the question by his counsel, “What did he say about the list?” he answered:

“He said that was an accurate and correct list of this property that he owned and proposed to giye me as part payment for my farm.”

Thereupon the plaintiff’s counsel offered the exhibit in evidence. Counsel for the defendant objected to it on the grounds that it was Incompetent, irrelevant, immaterial, that no proper foundation was laid for its admission, and specifically to the figures showing the values for the same reasons. The court overruled these objections and the defendant excepted. Thereafter the plaintiff testified that Mr. Graf told him, in the conversation before the contract of sale was made, that if Mr. Holcombe made a sale of the farm it must be made on that day; that he told Mr. Graf that, in taking that scattered lot of property from Southern Oklahoma, near the Texas border, to Northern Nebraska and Omaha and Tecumseli, it would be impossible for [690]*690him to make an examination of it in the few hours he had given him; that Mr. Graf replied that, in lieu of the fact that Mr. Holcombe had not had time to make an examination of this scattered property, the list would be sufficient, that the list was a correct description of the properties, and that he would find it correct with reference to the properties and their worth; that Mr. Graf told him that the brick barn was worth $4,000, that the store building was worth $4,000, that the vacant lot was worth $1,000, that he set the value of the 80 acres in Ray county at $12,000, and that the 160 acres in Roup county was worth $4,800.

[1,2] At the close of the trial the court withdrew from the jury all the evidence of the statements and representations made by the defendant of the value of the respective pieces of property, which were not accompanied with false representations of the character or extent thereof, and then charged them that the—

“law does not regard as a statement of fact ordinarily wliat is merely a statement, of the value of an article, and under the circumstances here I think there is no actionable representation because of any’ statement that the defendant is claimed to have made as to the value of the Teeumseh property, or of the Loup county farm, or of the Bay county land, or the Oklahoma property, or any other property, that he put in.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
277 F. 687, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/graf-v-holcombe-ca8-1921.