Hafer v. Cole

57 So. 757, 176 Ala. 242, 1912 Ala. LEXIS 45
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedFebruary 8, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 57 So. 757 (Hafer v. Cole) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hafer v. Cole, 57 So. 757, 176 Ala. 242, 1912 Ala. LEXIS 45 (Ala. 1912).

Opinion

SOMERVILLE, J.

The bill of complaint, as amended, shows that the respondent, Savilla F. Hafer, in August, 1910, sold and conveyed to the complainant an automobile for the price of $900, and received as a cash payment $75 in money, and also an automobile at the agreed value of $375. Afterwards complaint and his wife conveyed to respondent a lot of land at the agreed value of $400 as a payment on the balance due her; and for the remaining balance of principal and interest complainant, on November 30, 1910, executed his note for $60, .payable six months after date. The contract of sale was in writing, and contains no warranty of title, nor any representations as to the state of the title; but the bill avers that at the time the contract was made respondent represented that she was the owner of the automobile, and that it was fully paid for by her. At the time of the sale the title was in fact in Mrs. Hafer’s vendors, who had sold to her conditionally upon the payment of all the purchase money; her contract with them being evidenced by a writen instrument duly filed for record on April 18, 1910, and a balance of $100 being due thereon. On January 1, 1911, complainant was informed of this hostile title. On January 6, 1911, one Lehman, who was the assignee of all the rights of Mrs. Hafer’s said vendors, reclaimed and took said automobile from the possession of complainant under said vendor’s contract, and on January 9, 1911, complainant informed respondent of the taking of the machine by Lehman, as the assignee of her vendors, and that he, complainant, had elected to rescind his contract of purchase, and demanded back from her his own automobile, the repayment of the money she had re[246]*246ceived from him, the reconveyance to him, or his wife, of the lot of land, and the surrender of his $60 note.

The hill charges specifically that respondent’s representations as to her .ownership were untrue; that at the date of its filing Lehman was the owner of the automobile; and that in selling it to complainant under the conditions recited respondent practiced a fraud on him. It is alleged, also, that by reason of Lehman’s title, possession, and right of possession complainant is unable to restore said automobile to respondent.

A demurrer was interposed to the amended bill, the grounds of which may be summarized as follows: (1) No facts are alleged to show any fraud; the averment thereof being a mere conclusion. (2) Complainant did not offer to return the automobile to respondent at the-time of his alleged rescission and does not offer to do so in the bill; and does not offer to place her in statu quo, or show that it can be done. (3) Complainant may have unnecessarily or improperly allowed the automobile to be taken from him. (4) That the lot conveyed to respondent Avas the property of complainant’s wife, as to which and Avhom relief cannot be properly had unless she is made a party to the bill. (5) Complainant has ah adequate remedy at laAv. (6) Respondent may have nevertheless acted in good faith. (7) Complainant may nevertheless have knoAvn of the facts set up as a ground for rescission and relief; the contrary not being shown.

The chancellor overruled the demurrer, and the appeal is from that decree.

Where the A-endor of chattels is in possession, and sells in his own right, the law implies a. warranty of the title, for the breach of which an action lies in favor of the vendee. — Williamson v. Sammons, 34 Ala. 691.

[247]*247By the weight of authority, the vendee cannot, in the absence of fraud or an agreement- giving him the right, rescind an executed contract' of sale for a mere breach of warranty; his remedy in such cases being on the warranty. — 35 Cyc. 138; Pope v. Allis, 115 U. S. 363, 6 Sup. Ct. 69, 29 L. Ed. 393. But the theory on which complainant claims rescission and seeks relief is not for the breach of an implied warranty, but for false representations by which respondent perpetrated a fraud upon him. In this aspect of the case, the following principles are well settled by the authorities, or are patently correct:

A material false statement, relied upon by the other party in ignorance of its falsity, and which materially influences him to enter into the contract, constitutes a fraud which will authorize a rescission. — Sledge v. Scott, 56 Ala. 202; Perry v. Johnston, 59 Ala. 648; Davis v. Betz, 66 Ala. 206; Rice v. Gilbreath, 119 Ala. 424, 24 South. 421; Brewer v. Arantz, 124 Ala. 127, 26 South. 922; Moore v. Barber, 118 Ala. 563, 23 South. 798.

(2) The good faith of the party in making such statement is immaterial.- — Perry v. Johnston and Davis v. Betz, supra; Code, § 4298.

(3) Such statement- need not be a part of the contract, so as to become a warranty, in order to authorize a rescission; and, though the contract is in writing, a verbal false statement with respect to it may be proved for that purpose. — 35 Cyc. 73 (6) ; Cozzins v. Whitaker, 3 Stew. & P. 322.

(4) An implied warranty gives no right of action for a breach, where the defect complained of -was present and visible to the senses, or open to ordinary observation. But this rule has no application where a party relies on a false representation by the vendor with re[248]*248spect thereto, upon which he has a right to rely.— Burroughs v. P. G. Co., 81 Ala. 255, 1 South. 212; Woodbury v. State, 69 Ala. 242, 44 Am. Rep. 515; Henry v. Allen, 93 Ala. 197, 9 South. 579; Baker v. Maxwell, 99 Ala. 558, 14 South. 468; 35 Cyc. 74 (c), and cases cited.

(5) As a condition precedent to the exercise of the right of rescission, the party complaining must, if practicable, restore, or offer to restore, to the other party what he has received from him by virtue of the con1 tract. — Cozzins v. Whitaker, 3 Stew. & P. 322; Jemison v. Woodruff, 34 Ala. 143; Young v. Arntze, 86 Ala. 116, 5 South. 253; Rice v. Gilbreath, 119 Ala. 424, 24 South. 421. This rule obviously has no application, however, where it has become impossible for such party to make such restoration by reason of the conduct or default of such other party. — Johnson v. Oehmig, 95 Ala. 189, 190, 10 South. 430, 36 Am. St. Rep. 204.

(6) It is not merely the right, but it may be also the duty, of the purchaser of property, whether real or personal, to yield its possession to the true and hostile owner when he demands it; and although, when he so yields it without awaiting an action at law and a hostile judgment, he assumes the burden of proving that he yielded to a paramount title, he forfeits thereby no rights of his own against his vendor growing out of the failure of the title. See Copeland v. McAdory, 100 Ala. 553, 13 South. 545; 35 Cyc. 416, 5.

(7) The purchaser of property, whether under false representations as to the vendor’s title, or a mere warranty thereof, is under no duty to the vendor to .buy up or extinguish hostile claims in derogation or impairment of the title acquired by him from such vendor; and his failure to do so, whereby the property is lost, [249]*249does not affect his right to rescind the contract for fraud, or to recover for the breach of warranty.

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57 So. 757, 176 Ala. 242, 1912 Ala. LEXIS 45, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hafer-v-cole-ala-1912.