Smith v. Columbus Buggy Co.

123 P. 580, 40 Utah 580, 1912 Utah LEXIS 31
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedApril 17, 1912
DocketNo. 2260
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 123 P. 580 (Smith v. Columbus Buggy Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Columbus Buggy Co., 123 P. 580, 40 Utah 580, 1912 Utah LEXIS 31 (Utah 1912).

Opinions

FRICK, C. J.

In February, 1909, the respondent commenced this action against the defendants Columbus Buggy Company, a corporation of Columbus, Ohio, and Samuel Davidson for an informal rescission of a sale of an electric automobile, alleged to have been made by them to her. The action was grounded upon false representations and fraud. On April 1, 1909, after discovering that the Consolidated Wagon & Machine Company, a corporation of the State of Utah, hereinafter styled appellant, made, or was interested in making, the [583]*583said sale, respondent asked that it be made a party to the action, which was accordingly done. In making appellant a party, respondent filed what in the record is called an “amended and supplemental complaint” against the defendants first mentioned, and also against appellant. The allegations in said complaint, so far as material here, are, in substance, m follows:

That on the 1st day of April, 1908, at Salt Lake City, Utah, the respondent purchased from said defendants a certain electric automobile, manufactured by the defendant Columbus Buggy Company, for which respondent paid said defendants, at the time aforesaid, the sum of $1650; that before making the sale of said automobile “said defendants falsely and fraudulently represented to the plaintiff, well knowing that said representations were false and fraudulent, and for the purpose of deceiving the plaintiff and inducing her to buy said automobile, that the same was new and in a new condition; that the plaintiff, relying upon said statements and believing them to be true, purchased said automobile and paid the defendants the sum of $1650 therefor; that said statements were false and fraudulent, and well know by said defendants and each of them to be false and fraudulent, in this: That said automobile was not new in a new condition, but that one of the trays of batteries from which is generated the power to propel said automobile was old and secondhand, and the same was not new or in a new condition, by reason of which the power that said car should have had was materially reduced and impaired.” It is further alleged that upon discovering the condition of said automobile and the falsity of the representations aforesaid respondent rescinded said sale, tendered back said automobile to said defendants, and demanded from them the return of the amount paid to them therefor. The respondent then proceeds to set forth that appellant was not made .a party to the action at its inception, because its officers and agents had falsely informed the respondent that the automobile in question was' the sole property of the defendant Columbus Buggy Company, and that the sale was made in its behalf, and that [584]*584appellant was not the owner of said automobile and bad no interest therein; but respondent alleges that appellant “was, at the time of the sale, the owner of an interest in said car, the exact nature of which this plaintiff is unable to state, but that the sale of said ear was made to the plaintiff by said defendants, .and in their interest and for their benefit and profit.” Respondent also alleged' that, before making appellant a party to this action, she also' tendered back to it said automobile, and demanded the return of the amount paid therefor from it. Upon substantially these allegations, respondent prayed judgment against all of the defendants for the sum of $1650, with interest from February 1, 1909.

The appellant and each of the other defendants filed separate answers. Barring the plea that respondent was estopped or had waived her right to rescind the sale, appellant could have proved all of the averments contained in its answer under a general denial. For the purposes of this decision, therefore, we shall treat appellant’s answer as denying all of the material allegations of respondent’s complaint. The same may be said with regard to both of the answers of the other two defendants.

Upon the foregoing issues, a.trial to a jury resulted in a verdict in favor of respondent and against the appellant only. The court entered judgment upon the verdict, denied a motion for a new trial, and appellant prosecutes this appeal to reverse said judgment.

The alleged errors are very numerous, consisting of no less than seventy-five separate assignments, all of which are relied' on. One of the principal assignments relates to the overruling of appellant’s motion for a nonsuit. When respondent rested, appellant moved for a nonsuit upon the grounds: (h) Because the evidence showed that the sale was made by the defendant Davidson, and there is no proof that said Davidson was the agent of or connected with or acted for or on behalf of appellant in making said sale; (2) because there is no proof of any false representations nor of any fraud' nor falsity on the part of any one; and (3) because the proof is to the effect that respondent did not rescind [585]*585within a reasonable time after discovering the alleged defects in the automobile, assuming the evidence adduced in her behalf to be true.

Nearly all of the evidence, with the exceptions hereinafter noted, was indirect or inferential, the inferences being, however, conflicting. Respondent’s evidence, therefore, is of that character which it was proper to submit to the jury, for the purpose of permitting them to pass upon the inferences that should be deduced from certain facts, and to determine the weight or effect that should be given to such inferences. In that respect, the evidence presents a case which is peculiarly for the jury to pass on. Under the peculiar circumstances of this case, we cannot set forth the evidence, even in condensed form, without extending the length of this opinion beyond' all practical limits. Such portions of the evidence, therefore, as are deemed essential to a full understanding of the points decided we shall refer to in the course of the opinion.

In passing upon the motion for a nonsuit, it must therefore suffice to say that, in view that all of respondent’s evidence, together with all of the legitimate inferences that can be deduced therefrom, was, for the purposes 1 of the motion, conceded to be true, there was, in our judgment, sufficient evidence in support of every essential allegation to talk© the case to the jury. The court therefore did not err in overruling the motion for a nonsuit.

After the motion for a nonsuit had been disposed of, appellant and the other two defendants introduced their evidence; and after the evidence, direct and in rebuttal, was all in, appellant requested the court to direct the jury to return a verdict in its favor. It is contended that, notwithstanding the fact that the court had denied appellant’s motion for a nonsuit, this request should nevertheless have been granted, and that it was error to refuse it. This contention, in effect, is based upon the theory that in interposing the motion for a nonsuit appellant, by force of law, was compelled to admit that all of the respondent’s evidence, as well as the legitimate inferences that might be deduced therefrom, was true, but that such, under the circumstances of this case, was [586]*586not the precise effect of the request for a directed verdict.

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Bluebook (online)
123 P. 580, 40 Utah 580, 1912 Utah LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-columbus-buggy-co-utah-1912.