Robinson v. Phegley

163 P. 1166, 84 Or. 124, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 212
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 3, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 163 P. 1166 (Robinson v. Phegley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robinson v. Phegley, 163 P. 1166, 84 Or. 124, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 212 (Or. 1917).

Opinion

Mr. Justice McCamant

delivered the opinion of the court.

The sole question raised by this appeal is the sufficiency of the third amended complaint to which the lower court sustained a demurrer. This complaint alleges that in the year 1907 Galice Consolidated Mines Company was an Oregon corporation owning valuable mining property situate in the State of Oregon, and that plaintiff was a stockholder who had invested $15,000, presumably in the purchase of stock. It is alleged that the defendant represented to plaintiff that he was the owner of valid claims against the corporation for “moneys actually paid, laid out and expended by him” for the corporation, aggregating $9,600; that one of the items making up the said sum of $9,600 was a claim for $6,000 secured by mortgage on the properties of the corporation; that plaintiff, having invested a large sum of money in the stock of the corporation which she desired to protect, was induced by the representations of the defendant to purchase a one-half interest in his claims, paying him therefor $4,800 on June 11, 1907, and was further induced to purchase the other half of said claims on October 19, 1907, paying the defendant the additional sum of $4,800 therefor. The $6,000 mortgage had been foreclosed by decree of the Circuit Court for Josephine County at the time when the first contract was entered into and four days thereafter the property was sold under the decree. It is inferable from the complaint that plaintiff became the owner of the title to the property acquired by this foreclosure sale, and that her title has never at any time been disturbed. The property had been pooled with other properties in the neighborhood prior to plaintiff’s purchase, and [127]*127plaintiff assumed the burdens of a contract which had been entered into'with these other parties under which she claims to have expended large sums of money. She also claims to have done the assessment work on the mineral claims and to have expended $24,000 for such purpose.

The ground for relief alleged in the complaint is that the $6,000 mortgage represented no real indebtedness subsisting between the corporation and the defendant; that the mortgage had been given originally to secure the defendant from liability on a certain undertaking on appeal which he had executed at the instance of the corporation; that all liability on this undertaking had terminated before the first contract between the plaintiff and the defendant; and that the decree for the foreclosure of the mortgage was secured by collusion with the officers of the corporation and with intent to defraud plaintiff.

Plaintiff alleges that she purchased the claims of defendant in reliance on the representations made to her and in ignorance of the facts as she now alleges them to be. She asks for a rescission of the entire contract and for a recovery from the defendant of all sums of money paid him or expended on the property by her. She alleges that she remained in ignorance of the facts and without suspicion thereof until a few months prior to the bringing of this suit. Immediately on ascertaining the facts she demanded restitution from the defendant and alleges that some of the delay in bringing .the suit was due to the time allowed to defendant to consider her claim for restitution.

The demurrer attacked the complaint for insufficiency of facts and also on the ground that the suit was not brought within six years after the accrual of plaintiff’s cause of suit.

[128]*128In so far as the plaintiff seeks to rescind the entire contract and to recover damages in'excess of $6,000 we think the court did not err in holding the complaint to be insufficient. It was plainly contemplated by the partiés when they had the dealings in 1907 that plaintiff should become the owner of the property of the corporation through the foreclosure sale. She did become such owner and there is no allegation that her title has ever been attacked, either by the corporation or any other stockholder therein. It is well settled that fraudulent representations will not justify the rescission of a contract unless the representations be material. This principle is well illustrated by the case of Bartlett v. Blaine, 83 Ill. 25, 27 (25 Am. Rep. 346). Plaintiff in this case was induced to sign a composition requested by an insolvent debtor from all of his creditors. It was represented to plaintiff that no one had received or would receive any other compensation than the fifty per cent dividend on the claims of the creditors, which were protected by the composition agreement. Plaintiff alleged that this representation was false in that another creditor had been given a note for $500 to induce his signature. The court held that the fraudulent representation was immaterial and gave plaintiff no cause of action.

In the' Illinois case, as in this case, a false représentation was made with intent to deceive and the belief of the plaintiff in its truth was a motive inducing the contract; but in the Illinois case the creditor secured all that it could have secured if the representation had been true and in this case plaintiff secured the property of the corporation and stood to secure nothing more if the fact had been as represented.

“Where the vendor and vendee are dealing at arm’s length with each other, the representations of the [129]*129former as to the cost of his property, even though false and made with a view to deceive, will furnish no ground of action”: Hank v. Brownell, 120 Ill. 161, 163.

To the same effect are: Banta v. Palmer, 47 Ill. 99; Holbrook v. Conner, 60 Me. 578, 581-583 (11 Am. Rep. 212); Bishop v. Small, 63 Me. 12; Hemmer v. Cooper, 8 Allen (90 Mass.), 334.

It is not enough that the misrepresentation of a vendor furnishes the vendee with a motive to huy. Such a representation is collateral rather than material.

The material portion of the defendant’s representations related to the impending judicial sale of the corporate properties and the consequent danger that plaintiff’s stock would be wiped out. In these respects the representations were true. The sale did take place and the purchaser at the sale became the owner of the properties of the corporation.

It is true that the complaint alleges that plaintiff would not have entered into the contract for the purchase of defendant’s claims but for the false representations which were made to her. But the complaint shows affirmatively that there were valid claims against the corporation to the extent of $3,600, owned by the defendant, and additional claims in excess of $5,000, on which other creditors had secured judgment against the corporation. The manifest purpose of plaintiff was to acquire title to the property of the corporation and thus preclude the loss of a large sum of money which she had already invested. There is no allegation that she was deceived as to the character of the properties or that any misrepresentation was made to her about them. She got what the parties contemplated that she should get, and she could have got no more if the representation had been true. Therefore she is not entitled to a rescission.

[130]*130[A.'s regards her right to recover the $6,000 paid in the purchase of the defendant’s mortgage, which represented no debt and which was collusively foreclosed, the case stands on a somewhat different footing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
163 P. 1166, 84 Or. 124, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 212, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robinson-v-phegley-or-1917.