O'Brien v. Coon

174 N.W. 513, 103 Neb. 836, 1919 Neb. LEXIS 169
Nebraska Supreme Court·Decided November 1, 1919·No. No. 20955·Published

Opinion

Sedgwick, J.

This defendant, as agent for the Tri-State Investment Company, contracted to sell to the plaintiff a section of land in Minnesota for $32,655. The plaintiff paid on the contract $2,000 at one time, and at another $1,000, and conld not get title to the land under the contract. He brought this action against the defendant for damages, alleging that the defendant procured him to enter into the contract by false and fraudulent statements and representations. He asked .to recover the $3,000^ he had paid on the contract, with interest, and alleged that, relying upon the contract, he incurred other $am-ages, for which he sought also to recover. The defendant answered alleging a general deni.&rof fraud on the part of the defendant; and that/ the plaintiff had a valid contract with the inve^tan'ent company described in the petition a&4 ‘ -had] a just claim and cause of action against/’ a certain other agent of the company and against the company itself; and that there had been a “full compromise and settlement” of his cause of action through certain transactions with the investment company and others. There was a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff for $5,198.57,' and the defendant has appealed.

The land was owned by a woman in the East, and the investment company had no salable title in the land. The evidence was conflicting as to the statements and representations made by the defendant in procuring the contract. The plaintiff and his wife and daughter testified positively to the alleged representations of the defendant. This evidence was denied by the defendant, and possibly some discredit was thrown upon the testimony of plaintiff by another agent of the company and perhaps some other witnesses. But as the plaintiff dealt with the defendant and relied upon him so far that he advanced this money ■ before receiving any title or any satisfactory evidence of title, and in view of other circumstances in the case, it cannot be said that [838]*838this finding was without sufficient support in the testimony.

The defendant complains of the refusal of the court to give the jury an offered instruction in which it was said that the defendant would not be liable to the plaintiff if they found “that plaintiff was informed while on the land in controversy that it was owned by a lady in the East. ’ ’ The $2,000' had been paid by the plaintiff relying upon these representations before ^he was “on the land,” and therefore the instruction w;puld have been erroneous, if given.

TAje defendant requested instructions to the effect that h»,wopld not be liable for expressions of opinion or belh'fNps to what the company would do in completing the coni rh’cf; but this point, so far as it is applicable in this case, uppers to have been covered by the instructions given byv the court.

As an element of damage, the pla.yjtiff alleged and testified that, relying upon the purchase of the land in question, he disposed of his farming interests in Nebraska, and was prevented from farming the coming season, and was damaged in at least the sum of $2,000. The defendant requested the court to instruct the jus;y that the evidence was not sufficient to -entitle the plaintiff, to recover damages. The plaintiff was asked the question: “You may state, Mr. O’Brien, from your knowledge of what you had been doing upon the farm the years before and at this time, what your damages were for the season of 1912, from being without a' farm to cultivate.” This was objected to as incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial; no proper foundation laid. The objection was overruled, and he answered: “Why, to the best of my knowledge I was damaged about $2,000.” It is objected that “what one ‘estimates’ or ‘calculates’ or ‘thinks’ is not proper evidence of damages. ’ ’ It may be conceded that this answer of the witness alone would not be a sufficient basis for estimating damages. The defendant’s cross-examination of [839]*839the witness was not extensive. It appears to have been carefully calculated to avoid showing actionable elements of damage; but it does appear from the cross-examination that - the plaintiff, relying upon this contract of purchase, went to Minnesota, taking ten horses with him and other property; that the defendant paid at least a part of the plaintiff’s expenses while there. When this question was first asked, the court sustained the objection. The plaintiff then testified that he had been farming all his life; that he had four boys at home to help him; that he knew from experience what it was worth to have a farm to cultivate during the season; that he had farmed 240 acres during the past season, and since 1912. It appears that the jury did not rely upon the plaintiff’s estimate that these damages amounted to $2,000. The record shows that they did not allow more than $700 or $800 for these damages. The jury must have estimated that the expense of removing to Minnesota and remaining there for some time, and the loss of time of the plaintiff and his help, could not have been less than $700, and we cannot say from what we have seen in this record that the evidence under the circumstances will not support such a conclusion.

After the plaintiff had paid the $2,000 he obtained an abstract of title to the land, which showed that the investment company had no title, and as he made the further payment of $1,000 afterwards, it is insisted that he could not have relied upon the representation that the company owned the land. The plaintiff testified that he called the defendant’s attention to the fact that the abstract showed that the company had no title, and that the defendant assured him that the company had a deed from the owner of the land which would complete the title. This the defendant denies, and the fact that upon a former trial of this case the plaintiff upon cross-examination stated certain representations that the defendant made to him after he had seen the abstract, and did not testify that the defendant [840]*840stated then that the company had a deed, for the land, and the fact that the case npon a former hearing in this court had been reversed for a failure of evidence upon that point, it is contended so far discredits this testimony of the plaintiff that it should not have been believed by the jury. The defendant concedes that the abstract failed to show a title in the company, and that his attention was called to it, and that nevertheless he succeeded in obtaining another thousand dollars payment upon the contract. The cross-examination upon the former trial was not apparently intended to assist the plaintiff in bringing out the truth as to the matter, but rather was aimed at confusing the witness. There was in that cross-examination no direct statement of the witness that the defendant did not make such a representation. The cross-examination avoided challenging the witness’ attention to that particular fact. The plaintiff relied upon getting the land and paid this $1,000 upon that reliance. It was plainly the defendant’s conduct and general representations that caused this reliance of the plaintiff, and we cannot say from all this-evidence that the jury was clearly wrong in believing the plaintiff’s evidence that this statement was made by the defendant.

There was evidence that an agent of this company had left with one Matters money and property with which to satisfy the plaintiff’s claim against the company, and that Matters “had agreed to pay the money and property to the plaintiff. The defendant made a claim against the investment company,' and in an action against the company attempted to garnish this money and property in the hands of Matters.

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O'Brien v. Coon, 174 N.W. 513, 103 Neb. 836, 1919 Neb. LEXIS 169 (Neb. 1919).

174 N.W. 513 (O'Brien v. Coon) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.