Miller v. Bohanan

181 Iowa 1207
Supreme Court of Iowa·Decided December 11, 1917·Published

Opinion

Weaver, J.

The plaintiffs -allege an oral contract with the defendant, by which they were authorized to procure a purchaser for defendant’s farm of 170 acres, at a rate or price which should net to the defendant $100 per acre; that by such agreement plaintiffs were to receive as their commission or compensation for procuring such a purchaser whatever sum should be realized upon a sale, so effected, in [1208] excess of $100 per acre, it being also verbally agreed and understood that defendant should price the land to proposed purchasers at $110 per acre, and not recede therefrom without the plaintiffs’ consent. Plaintiffs further allege that, acting under such agreement', they did'procure and furnish to defendant a buyer to whom he sold the land at $110 per acre, whereby defendant became indebted to them in the sum of $1,700, for which they ask judgment.

Answering the petition, defendant pleads • as follows: (1) Denies the allegations therein made; (2) alleges that, before the alleged procurement of a purchaser, he had specifically and in good faith revoked all authority theretofore given the plaintiffs to act as his agents; that such revocation was made by oral communication direct to the plaintiffs, and by himself entering into a contract with one Dillon, whereby the latter acquired, for a period of several months, beginning with July 1, 1913, an option to purchase the land; and thereafter, defendant notified plaintiff that, pending such option, he would neither sell nor rent the land at any price. Defendant further pleads that after such revocation he placed upon the land a price of $110 per acre, and listed it with different agents at that price, and that he offered to so list it with the plaintiffs, but they refused to accept the agency on those terms. For a further answer, he alleges that, after the sale of the land, he had a full and complete settlement with the plaintiff Miller, whereby all their mutual accounts and claims were settled and adjusted, and in accordance therewith, Miller then and there paid the defendant the sum of $324.10, in full of the remainder found due him.

Plaintiffs, replying, denied all the affirmative matters pleaded in the answer. Upon these issues there was a jury trial, and a verdict and judgment for plaintiffs for the full amount of their claim, $1,700. Various assignments of [1209] error have been argued in support of appellant’s demand for reversal of the judgment against him.

1. Trial : instructions : objections: waivei. I. It is objected that defendant pleaded a settlement with plaintiffs, or one of them, and that the court stated that issue to the jury, but wholly failed to give the jury any instruction whatever as to the law applicable thereto. Ordinarily, such an objection, if well- founded, would have to be sustained; but, under the statute as it existed at the time of the trial, the defendant was required to make his objection to the court’s charge before the case was submitted to the jury, and to state the grounds upon which the charge was claimed to be erroneous. Appellant did make and file objections to the court’s- charge, but nowhere raised the particular objection which he now makes thereto. This operates as a waiver, and the question cannot be raised for the first time in this court. Parkhill v. Bekin's Van & Storage Co., 169 Iowa 455, 468. Furthermore, we think it must be said that there is no evidence in the record to support a finding in defendant’s favor on this particular issue.

2' proof1' ana3116’ date of contract. II. In their petition, the plaintiffs allege that the oral contract on which they sue was made on or about August 11, 1913. . On the trial, the testimony offered by them to sustain their claim of a contract of agency had reference to a conversation between the parties, which plaintiffs say took place on July 29, 1913. It is argued that this is a substantial variance from the pleadings, and amounts to such failure of proof as will defeat plaintiffs’ right of action. We think the variance is not material, except, perhaps, as it may bear upon the credibility of the plaintiffs as witnesses. The material allegation is that plaintiffs made with defendant an oral agreement, by which he authorized them to procure him a purchaser [1210] for his land on certain stated terms; and if on the trial they offered competent and sufficient evidence of such agreement, and that they furnished a purchaser on the authorized terms before the agency was revoked, and that defendant sold to such purchaser, it would be quite immaterial that the date of the agreement proved was July 29th, instead of the alleged date, August 11th.

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Miller v. Bohanan, 181 Iowa 1207 (iowa 1917).

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Related

Parkhill v. Bekin's Van & Storage Co.
169 Iowa 455 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1915)