Peck v. Jadwin

704 S.W.2d 708, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4109
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 10, 1986
DocketNo. 13861
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 704 S.W.2d 708 (Peck v. Jadwin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Peck v. Jadwin, 704 S.W.2d 708, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4109 (Mo. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

FLANIGAN, Judge.

Plaintiffs James A. Peck and Sara K. Peck, husband and wife, brought this action against defendants David P. Jadwin and Linda A. Jadwin, husband and wife, and other defendants. The petition contained seven counts and each count requested relief from defendants Jadwin. Prior to submitting the case to the jury, plaintiffs dismissed their claims against the other defendants and submitted, against defendants Jadwin, only the claim contained in Count 7.

Count 7 alleged that on October 23, 1978, defendants Jadwin executed a promissory note in the amount of $25,000 in favor of the plaintiffs; that under the terms of the note the principal became payable on March 2, 1979, and that the defendants had failed to make payment; that the note provided for interest from maturity at the rate of eight percent per annum and for the payment of all costs of collection, including a reasonable attorney’s fee, if not paid at maturity. The prayer of Count 7 was for the sum of $25,000, together with interest and a reasonable attorney’s fee.

Defendants Jadwins’ answer to Count 7 admitted execution of the note and further alleged that defendants “have paid to the plaintiffs the sum stated in said note for the reason that plaintiffs are indebted to the defendants in an amount in excess of $25,000 by setoff, credits, payments, and other amounts due.” The jury returned a [710]*710verdict in favor of the plaintiffs in the amount of $38,150, on which judgment was entered. Defendants Jadwin appeal.

The giving of the note mentioned in Count 7 was only one of a series of dealings between the Pecks and the Jadwins during 1978 which arose out of the purchase by the Pecks, from the Jadwins, of a lake shore resort on Table Rock Lake known as Wilderness Point Resort. The purchase was made on March 11, 1978, by execution of a “contract for deed,” accompanied by a general warranty deed and a bill of sale. Those documents, collectively, will be referred to as “the March agreement.”

Under the March agreement the Pecks agreed to pay the Jadwins a purchase price of $595,000, in installments, some of which were devoted to the payment of two mortgages. The Pecks were to receive the deed and the bill of sale from the escrow holder upon full performance. The Pecks were to have immediate possession.

The Pecks entered into possession in March and operated the resort, without financial success, until late September. On October 23, 1978, the Pecks and the Jad-wins entered into another written contract, pursuant to which the Jadwins delivered the note. This contract will be referred to as “the October agreement.”

Under the October agreement, the March agreement was “hereby canceled and for naught held”; the Pecks “relinquish[ed] all real property and personal property described in [the March agreement] to the Jadwins”; the deed and bill of sale were to be returned to the Jadwins by the escrow holder; the Pecks agreed to hold the Jad-wins harmless from all debts arising out of the operation of Wilderness Point Resort between March 11, 1978, and October 23, 1978; the Jadwins agreed to pay the Pecks $25,000, evidenced by the note.

Defendants Jadwins’ first point is that the trial court erred “in not granting, prior to presentment of evidence to the jury, defendants’ motion to require plaintiffs to elect between two mutually exclusive causes of action, one lying in fraud in the inducement of [the March agreement] and the second lying in damages for breach of [the October agreement] because plaintiffs, prior to trial, had consummated for consideration a termination of [the March agreement], cancelling same, and were thereby estopped from raising any claim of fraud and had waived said cause of action; and [the trial court] improperly allowed plaintiffs to present evidence of fraud and misrepresentation on [the March agreement] which was wholly unrelated to any issue in dispute relative to [the October agreement] and was highly prejudicial to defendants.”

Originally named as co-defendants with the Jadwins were the real estate agents who represented the Jadwins in connection with the sale embodied in the March agreement. Counts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the petition were against the Jadwins and the real estate agents. Counts 5, 6 and 7 were against the Jadwins only.

Counts 1, 2, 3 and 4, all based on the March agreement, contained the following claims and prayers: Count 1 (rescission; actual damages); Count 2 (fraud; punitive damages); Count 3 (negligent misrepresentations; actual damages); Count 4 (negligent misrepresentations; punitive damages). Counts 5, 6 and 7, all based on the October agreement, contained the following claims and prayers: Count 5 (specific performance); Count 6 (breach of contract; actual damages); Count 7 (suit on note; actual damages).

On the morning of the trial, and prior to its commencement, defendants Jadwin filed a “Motion to Require Plaintiffs to Elect Remedies.” Although defendants’ brief candidly admits that the motion was not carefully drafted, it may be charitably construed as a request for an order requiring the plaintiffs to make an election between Counts 1, 2, 3 and 4 (and especially Count 2) on the one hand, and Counts 5, 6 and 7 on the other hand. Defendants’ argument, in essence, is that plaintiffs should not have been permitted to introduce evidence that they were induced to enter into the March agreement by fraudulent representations made to them by the defendants [711]*711(speaking through the real estate agents) because the claim for fraud was waived by the conduct of the plaintiffs in entering into the October agreement. There is no merit in this contention.

When defendants presented their motion to the court they offered no evidence in support of it. A motion does not prove itself and the burden is on the mov-ant to prove its allegations. Taylor v. Coe, 675 S.W.2d 148, 150[3] (Mo.App.1984). Defendants’ motion was well taken only if the petition, on its face, so demonstrated.

Under Missouri procedure a party may state in his pleadings as many separate claims or defenses as he has, “regardless of consistency and whether based on legal or equitable grounds.” Rule 55.10, V.A.M.R.

“[W]here a party entitled to recover for fraud and deceit has knowledge of the fraud and deceit in the original contract and thereafter makes a new agreement, the case law seems to preclude a recovery for the fraud and deceit tincturing the original contract.” (Emphasis added.)

Brown v. South Joplin Lead & Zinc Mining Co., 231 Mo. 166, 132 S.W. 693, 694 (1910).

At p. 695 the court said:

“This doctrine of waiving the right to sue for fraud and deceit by entering into a new agreement concerning the same subject-matter may well be sustained on the theory that all such questions were considered by the parties in making the new agreement. If at the time the parties entered into the new agreement the facts as to the fraud and deceit were known, it is to be presumed that both parties acted with that question in view, and the new agreement was the wiping out of all old scores.” (Emphasis added.)

In Anselmo v. Manufacturers Life Ins. Co., 771 F.2d 417 (8th Cir.1985), the court said, at 421:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Roth v. La Societe Anonyme Turbomeca France
120 S.W.3d 764 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2003)
Phipps v. Union Electric Co.
25 S.W.3d 679 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2000)
Heitz v. Champagne
839 S.W.2d 700 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1992)
Henges Associates, Inc. v. Industrial Foam Products, Inc.
787 S.W.2d 898 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1990)
State v. Williams
747 S.W.2d 635 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1988)
Farnsworth v. Farnsworth
728 S.W.2d 223 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1986)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
704 S.W.2d 708, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4109, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peck-v-jadwin-moctapp-1986.