Patterson v. Gore

143 N.W. 643, 177 Mich. 591, 1913 Mich. LEXIS 749
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 3, 1913
DocketDocket No. 19
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 143 N.W. 643 (Patterson v. Gore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Patterson v. Gore, 143 N.W. 643, 177 Mich. 591, 1913 Mich. LEXIS 749 (Mich. 1913).

Opinion

Stone, J.

This case originated in justice’s court. The return of the justice upon appeal shows that the declaration and bill of particulars were in writing, in a plea of trespass on the case upon promises, to plaintiff’s damage $150. The plea was the general issue. No written declaration or bill of particulars was returned to the circuit court. In the circuit court the trial proceeded upon the merits of the case without any question being raised upon the condition of the pleadings until near the close of the trial.

In his opening statement to the jury, plaintiff’s counsel claimed that in June, 1911, plaintiff purchased a horse of the defendant for $75, and that defendant represented the horse to be sound in every respect except that it was blind; that plaintiff, relying upon the representation, paid for the horse, but it proved to [593]*593be unsound, wind broken, and worthless; that plaintiff, discovering-these facts, returned the horse to the defendant who accepted it and turned over to the plaintiff another horse to' be tried, which second horse defendant also represented to be free from blemishes and sound in every respect except that it was cockankled; that plaintiff took this second horse and gave it a trial, but it proved unsound and was returned to defendant and accepted by him; that, after some parleying between the parties, the plaintiff demanded his money back, the claim of the plaintiff being stated by his counsel as follows:

“Mr. Patterson demanded his money back with the price of the feed and keep of this worthless horse, the difference between the horse he delivered to him and the kind of a horse he ought to have had. Mr. Gore utterly refused to Mr. Patterson any satisfaction in any shape or manner, so Mr. Patterson brought this action for breach of warranty, and for fraud practiced upon him, and for the $75, for the difference between the horse that Mr. Gore sold him if he had been such a horse as he represented him to be.”

The testimony of the plaintiff tended to support his claim, and he testified, both upon his direct and cross-examination, that if the blind horse had been sound as represented by defendant it would have been worth $125, but that it was worthless-.

There was upon the trial a sharp conflict between the parties as to the terms of the bargain and as to what was done by .the parties; the defendant denying the warranty of the first horse and claiming that the second horse was received in settlement of the whole matter and that the second horse had never been returned to him. This evidence was all submitted to the jury under a lengthy and proper charge.

Upon the trial one Isaac Stanton was examined on behalf of the plaintiff and, while testifying with refer[594]*594ence to the second horse, was asked the following question by plaintiffs counsel:

“Q. What, in your judgment, would a horse of that size and description, age, color, weight and condition, afflicted as this horse was, be worth at that time, and the price of horses being as they were at that time?”

This question was objected to by defendant’s counsel as incompetent and immaterial. The court overruled the objection. The defendant’s counsel added:

“Defendant excepts for the reason that it was not at the time that the horse was delivered to this man but it was two or three days later, and, under the circumstances which he has related as he found him there, it would not be competent in this inquiry for him to put a value upon the horse at that time.”

After the close of the plaintiffs testimony, and after the opening statement of the defendant, the court asked counsel a question as to the measure of damages in the case, and, after some colloquy between the court and counsel, defendant’s attorney said:

“What do I understand, then, that their position is?
“The Court: It is that they are entitled to recover the difference between what the blind horse was actually worth at that time and place in that market and what he would have been worth had he been only blind; that is the plaintiff’s position.”

There was no exception to this remark of the court.

In his argument to the jury plaintiff’s counsel, in referring to a witness for the defendant, by the name of Chavaneau, said:

“I say to you, gentlemen of the jury, that Mr. Chavaneau was more or less intoxicated that day. He had been drinking that day and was more or less intoxicated.”

Whereupon defendant’s counsel said:

“Note an exception to that; there is no evidence of it whatever.”

There is some confusion in the record as to the order in which the following proceedings were had. [595]*595It is apparent that the trial court discovered that there was no written declaration on file in the case; the court saying:

“There is no declaration in the case, simply the justice recites that a declaration in writing was presented and a plea in an action of trespass on the case upon promises.
“Defendant’s Counsel: I would have no objection to his putting that declaration in if he shys it is a copy of the one filed in justice’s court. I didn’t try the case below; Mr. Patchin did; and I looked over the files before coming in here, and there was no declaration filed.”

The record discloses that, on the trial, there was filed the draft of a declaration containing the common counts in assumpsit, with blanks unfilled, and containing the following special count:

“And whereas heretofore, to wit, on or about the - day of-, A. D. 1911, at the township aforesaid, in consideration the plaintiff, at the special instance of defendant, would buy of him (said defendant) a certain horse, at and for the sum of $75, he (the said defendant) undertook and- then and there faithfully promised plaintiff that the said horse was sound and all right except both eyes were blind, and that, if said representations so made as aforesaid or any of them should prove untrue, he (the said defendant) would upon the return to him (the said defendant) of said horse provide the said plaintiff with another horse that was sound and all right in every way.
“And the said plaintiff says that, relying on said representation on or about the date last aforementioned, plaintiff did buy said horse and did pay to defendant the said sum of $75 for said horse, and that defendant,, disregarding his promises and undertakings aforesaid and contriving to injure and defraud said plaintiff, deceived said plaintiff in this: That said horse was not sound and was wind broken at the time of making of said promise by defendant as aforesaid — whereupon plaintiff returned said horse to said defendant, and said defendant took and received back [596]

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Bluebook (online)
143 N.W. 643, 177 Mich. 591, 1913 Mich. LEXIS 749, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/patterson-v-gore-mich-1913.