Osborne & Co. v. Hanlin

63 N.E. 572, 158 Ind. 325, 1902 Ind. LEXIS 143
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedApril 9, 1902
DocketNo. 19,818
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 63 N.E. 572 (Osborne & Co. v. Hanlin) 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
Osborne & Co. v. Hanlin, 63 N.E. 572, 158 Ind. 325, 1902 Ind. LEXIS 143 (Ind. 1902).

Opinion

Jordan, C. J.

Action by appellant to recover on two promissory notes executed by the appellee. Answer by the latter, demurrer thereto overruled, trial by jury, and verdict returned in favor of appellee, and judgment rendered thereon over appellant’s motion for a new trial. The only alleged error argued and pressed by appellant for reversal is the overruling of its demurrer to the answer. The defendant in his answer to the complaint admits the execution of the notes in suit, but avers that the plaintiff ought not to have and maintain his action thereon, for the reason that about two months before the execution of the notes he “purchased of the plaintiff through its agent, conditionally, one binder, one mower, and one hay rake, at and for the agreed price of $180 to be paid, $90 on the 1st day of September, 1891, and $90 on September 1, 1895.” It is then averred that the contract or agreement of purchase between said agent and defendant for the purchase of these implements was that the defendant was to take them on trial, “and if they did not work right he was not to pay for them”; “that the said binder, mower and rake were to do good work, and the hinder was to be as good a one and do as good work as any binder in the United States; that the said agent was to set up and start the binder, mower, and rake, and when set up and tried, if they did do good work, then the same were to be the property of the defendant, and he was to pay for the same as hereinbefore stated.” The pleading further charges that the defendant hauled these implements from the town of Bryant in Jay county, Indiana, to his farm in Penn township in said county, and that an agent of plaintiff, together with an expert sent by it, came to his farm, set up and started the binder to work. After this follows a recital of what was said in a conversation had by and between the defendant and the agent, and then it is alleged that the agent and the expert “went away”, and, after they had left, the defendant and his employes hitched three horses to said binder and went out into' the field and began to cut wheat [327]*327with the binder, but found that it would not work right in this, — “That it would bind one or two sheaves and then throw off three or four sheaves without binding, and that thereupon the defendant stopped work,” and notified the agent who had set up the machine that the latter would not work; that in response to this notice an agent of plaintiff came to the defendant’s farm, and, after the binder was again tried, it was found that it “worked no better than before.” It would bind one or two sheaves, and then throw off three or four sheaves without binding. At this point the defendant interjects into his pleading a conversation had between himself and the agent of plaintiff, and then avers that, after this agent left, the defendant “again tried to work the binder, but it worked no better, but in the same way that it did on the trial made with it before.” It is averred, however, that the defendant cut or harvested his wheat with this binder, and then “tried to cut his oats, but could not do so.” It is next alleged that on August 28, 1891, the day the notes in suit were executed, the plaintiff’s agent with whom the defendant originally made the contract for the purchase of the binder came to see him for the purpose of closing the sale. After setting out all that was said in a conversation between the defendant and this agent about the binder and about making a settlement, it is disclosed that the agent agreed with the defendant that, if the latter would execute his notes in settlement for the implements in question, he would give him a written guaranty that he would “not have to pay them until the machine or binder was made to do as' good work as any machine in the United States.” In consideration of this proposition, the defendant executed the notes in suit, and the agent at the same time gave him a written guaranty reciting therein that the defendant had given the notes to D. M. Osborne & Company for a binder, mower, and rake, and that he would not be required to pay the notes until the binder was made to do as good work as any binder in the United States. This [328]*328written guaranty is alleged to have been lost, and therefore defendant says he is unable to file a copy thereof with his answer. It is charged that, after the execution of these notes, “plaintiff failed to fix the binder so that it would work any better than it did at first.” Following this agreement on February 12, 1898, it is alleged that an agent of the plaintiff called on the defendant and requested him to pay the notes, but he refused to pay them “because the binder was worthless, and had not been fixed by the plaintiff so as to be as good a binder as any binder in the United States.” After reciting another conversation had between the defendant and the agent, it is then charged that it was finally agreed that, if the defendant would pay the amount of the notes representing the purchase price of the mower and the rake, with the interest thereon, the agent would indorse a statement on the back of one of the notes showing the amount paid, and for what the same was paid, and that nothing more was to be paid on the notes for the binder until it was put in order; that thereupon the defendant paid the sum of $60 as principal, and $15.05 as interest, and this agent indorsed on one of the notes the following statement: “Received on the notes $60 principal, and $15.05 interest, to pay for mower and rake. No interest for binder, and the binder to be put in order before balance is paid.” Since this payment it is averred that “nothing has been done by the plaintiff to put the binder in order, and that the same, remains, and now is, and was at the commencement of this action, wholly worthless, wherefore it is alleged, the consideration for the notes unpaid has failed, and plaintiff ought not to recover thereon.”

The answer is certainly a specimen of bad pleading, being an intermixture of facts, conclusions, and evidence all thrown together, and the pleader seems to have succeeded in violating the rules of good pleading. The answer professes, both at the beginning and close thereof, to be in bar of the action in its entirety, for the alleged reasons that, [329]*329under the facts set out, there has been a total failure of the consideration of the notes in suit. Section 369 Burns 1901, §117 of our civil code, authorizes a failure or want of consideration in whole or in part to be set up as a defense to any action arising out of any specialty bond, or deed, excepting negotiable instruments. A plea which in general terms alleges no consideration is good, but one which attempts to set up a whole or partial failure of consideration must state facts sufficient to establish such failure. Moore v. Boyd, 95 Ind. 134; Billan v. Hercklebrath, 23 Ind. 71. The rule, however, is well settled that an answer in bar, to be good on demurrer, must answer all that it assumes to in the introductory part thereof. The pleading in question, in its introductory part, alleges that the plaintiff ought not to maintain this action on the notes, for the reason that prior to their execution, the defendant had purchased of plaintiff, through one of its agents, the implements mentioned, at and for the price of $180, one-half of which was to be paid September 1, 1894, and the remainder on September 1, 1895; that he was to take them on trial, and, if they did not work right, he was not to pay for them; that the binder was to be a good one, and do as good work as any binder in the United States.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
63 N.E. 572, 158 Ind. 325, 1902 Ind. LEXIS 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/osborne-co-v-hanlin-ind-1902.