Huston v. McCloskey

76 Ind. 38
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1881
DocketNo. 7971
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 76 Ind. 38 (Huston v. McCloskey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Huston v. McCloskey, 76 Ind. 38 (Ind. 1881).

Opinion

Newcomb, C.

This was an action to recover the amount alleged to be due on two promissory notes, executed by the defendants, and to foreclose a mortgage securing said notes.

The answer alleged that the notes, with others which had been paid, were given in consideration of the sale by the plaintiffs to the makers thereof, of the lease, furniture, equipments, etc., of a hotel in the city of Terre Haute, known as the “National House,” and that the consideration of said notes had failed, by reason of certain frauds and misrepresentations of the plaintiffs, whereby the defendants [39]*39had been induced to make said purchase at a price greatly in excess of the value of the property received.

No question is made as to the sufficiency of the answer. It is not important, therefore, to enter into detail as to its averments. The plaintiffs replied by a general denial. There was a jury trial, a verdict for the defendants, and judgment on the verdict, over the plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial.

The only error assigned is the overruling of the motion for a new trial. The reasons alleged for a new trial were:

1st. That the verdict was contrary to law, and that it was not sustained by sufficient evidence ;

2d. The admission of certain evidence, objected to by the plaintiffs;

3d. The rejection of certain evidence offered by the plaintiffs;

4th. The giving of certain instructions to the jury, at the instance of the defendants, which were excepted to by the plaintiffs;

5th. Eefusing to submit to the jury a certain interrogatory, proposed by the plaintiffs.

The transcript contains what purports to be a full stenographic report of the evidence given on the trial, and the bill of exceptions states that “This was all the evidence given in the cause,” but the appellees insist that, in fact, all the evidence is not in the transcript, and therefore the record must be treated as if none were given.

It appears that a letter written by the plaintiffs, or one of them, to the defendant McCloskey, was read in evidence, but it is not copied into the record. After stating that the letter was identified by the witness McCloskey, the bill of exceptions says : “The letter was here read in evidence, as follows,” but where the letter should be copied, the page is blank. It is, therefore, manifest that the transcript- does not contain all the evidence, and, in such case, the statement to the contrary in the bill of exceptions must be dis[40]*40regarded. Merrifield v. Weston, 68 Ind. 70; Powers v. Evans, 72 Ind. 23. We can not, therefore, consider the sufficiency 'of the evidence, nor the alleged error in the instructions. The Jeffersonville, etc., R. R. Co. v. Cox, 37 Ind. 325; May v. Pavey, 63 Ind. 4. But where the question presented is of suck a character that it can be determined as well without the entire evidence as with it, such question may properly be considered. The Estate of Wells v. Wells, 71 Ind. 509.

The answer alleged, among other things, that, to induce the defendants to' make the purchase for which the notes and mortgage were given, the plaintiffs represented that the furniture, fixtures and appurtenances belonging to said hotel business, and with, and by means of, which the plaintiffs had run and operated said hotel, had cost them $11,000, and were then of the reasonable value of $9,000, when, in truth, said furniture, fixtures and appurtenances did not cost to exceed $6,000, and were then not worth more than $3,000. Also, that the plaintiffs represented that the net profits of the hotel, during the time they had operated it, had been $5,000 per annum, when, in fact, said plaintiffs had not made any profits.

The plaintiff Huston was examined as a witness in behalf of himself and his co-plaintiff, and, in the course of his testimony, stated that the hotel property sold to the defendants consisted of “all the furniture and carpets, of the cooking apparatus, of all that pertains to the laundry, of the gas fixtures, plumbing and water-works ; everything, in fact, in the hotel, almost, excepting the walls. The fixtures of the looms, such as the papering, and all that belongs to the hotel.” On cross-examination, this witness stated that the amount expended by the plaintiffs on the water-works, plumbing, gas fixtures, painting, papering, etc., was nearly $1,400 ; that they had paid about $2,000 for new furniture; and that the original purchase by them cost $6,500, making [41]*41the cost to them about $10,000, The witness was questioned, but stated his inability, to give the amount expended for papering, as that went into the general expense account without being itemized.

The defendant McCloskey was examined in rebuttal, and testified that the papering was in very bad condition at the time of the purchase; and ,he was then asked, what the papering he found on the' walls would be worth? To this the plaintiffs objected, on the ground of immateriality; but the objection was overruled, and they excepted. The witness answered : “I suppose about one-third of the rooms would do to use. I don’t consider the balance worth anything. Papering is worth from two to six dollars per room.” It elsewhere appeared that the hotel contained about sixty rooms.

This evidence was not competent for the purpose of proving that the defendants were deceived as to the condition of the papering, for if it was in bad condition they could readily have discerned it, and therefore could not be deceived but we do not understand that it was introduced for that purpose, but rather to contradict the testimony of Huston as to the cost of the improvements and repairs made by the plaintiffs. Other evidence was given of the cost and value of the residue of the articles purchased by the defendants, and the evidence omitted from the bill of exceptions may have further shown the relevancy and materiality of this testimony. At least, we can not say that it affirmatively appears that the court erred in this ruling.

The next ruling complained of is the rejection of the following evidence offered by the plaintiffs. The plaintiff Huston testified that a few months after the sale fo the defendants he had a conversation with the defendant McCloskey, and that, “during that conversation, he said they were getting along very nicely, indeed, and remarked to me that I had made a great mistake in selling out; that they had been running the hotel full every night, and that they had [42]*42cleared every month, with the exception of the-At this point, the defendants objected to the witness stating anything that McCloskey may have said in- regard to what they were clearing in the hotel. The plaintiffs’ counsel then stated to the court that they proposed to show that, in the conversation last spoken of bA? the Avitness, McCloskey said that the house Avas clearing so much — an amount equal to or exceeding the alleged representations of the plaintiffs, for the purpose of showing that if plaintiffs did make such representations they were not false.” The bill of exceptions states that the defendants based their objection upon the ground that Nelson, one of the plaintiffs, had savoi’h in answer to an interrogatory, that the hotel had made but $2,000 profit in the period of one year and five months, in which the plaintiffs had operated it; and on the further ground that the statement of one partner, made when not in the transaction of partnership business, did not bind the firm.

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Bluebook (online)
76 Ind. 38, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/huston-v-mccloskey-ind-1881.