Treat v. Richardson

47 Conn. 582
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedMarch 15, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 47 Conn. 582 (Treat v. Richardson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Treat v. Richardson, 47 Conn. 582 (Colo. 1880).

Opinion

Carpenter, J.

A careful attention to the issue presented by the pleadings will enable us rightly to apprehend the questions involved, and will materially aid us in making a correct disposition of them.

The bill alleges in substance that the petitioner, on the 25th day of August, 1875, bought of the respondent, George Richardson, eighteen hundred and twelve shares of the capital stock of the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company, and fifty-nine bonds issued by the company, each for $1,000, for which he was to pay the sum of $125,000, and that by the contract the title to the stock and bonds vested in him, although delivery and payment were postponed to 'a subsequent time. It is then alleged that on the 11th day of October, 1875, twelve hundred shares of the stock were transferred to him pursuant to the contract and that he paid to Richardson $50,000 of the purchase money. The balance of the money was to be paid by the petitioner, and the balance of the stock was to be transferred and the bonds delivered to him on the first day of November following. He then alleges a tender of payment and a demand for the delivery of the stock and bonds and a refusal to comply with the terms of the agreement by Richardson. The bill then prays that Richardson may be compelled to transfer to the petitioner, said stock and deliver to him said bonds. The other averments in the bill relating to other parties are not now material. These parties need not be further noticed, and we will speak of Richardson the prim cipal respondent as if he were sole respondent. Afterwards [585]*585the petitioner filed a supplemental hill the contents of which it is not necessary to state. To these bills there was a demurrer.

The case came to trial in June, 1877. The parties then agreed as follows :—The respondent was to transfer six hundred and twelve shares of the stock, deliver fifty-seven bonds, pay $1,000 each for two bonds (or deliver the bonds) and interest; and the petitioner was to pay $75,000, with interest at six and a half per cent, after November 1st, 1875. The suits were to be discontinued and receipts passed. This agreement was to have been performed on or before July 6th of the same year, but the time was extended to July 9tli. On that day the respondent tendered and offered to perform his part of the agreement, but the petitioner refused to accept the bonds and pay the money. Consequently the suit was not discontinued and receipts were not given. Subsequently the respondent withdrew his demurrer and filed an answer and cross-bill, in which he set up the agreement of June 22d, 1877, and the tender and refusal of July 9th. He then claimed that the petitioner then and thereby broke his contract and that it was no longer obligatory upon him. He further alleged that his circumstances and condition had materially changed since "the tender, and that he was no longer able or willing to perform the agreement, and prayed that the twelve hundred shares of stock might be re-transferred to him upon the re-payment of the money paid therefor.

The petitioner replied in substance as follows:—That he was wholly ignorant of the issuing or existence of the fifty-nine bonds at the time of the purchase, of which the respondent was then informed; that the bonds were in New York and were purchased without examination or inspection; that the respondent described, represented and warranted the bonds to have been regularly issued and to be in all respects first-class negotiable six per cent, bonds, and good, regular, legal and valid; that he purchased them as such and upon the faith of such representations; that he never saw the bonds before July 9th, 1877; that the bonds offered and tendered to him on that day were not first class negotiable bonds regularly [586]*586issued, nor were they good, regular, legal and valid, nor were they the same bonds described, represented and warranted to and purchased by him, but other and different, and of much less value, if not entirely worthless.

It will be noticed that this reply is not in form an amendment of the bill, nor is there anything in it to indicate that it was intended as such or designed to lay the foundation for any claim to relief other than that specifically prayed for in the bill. For any such purpose it was manifestly insufficient, for it does not state in what the defect or irregularity in issuing the bonds consists nor wherein they are invalid. But it does allege matter sufficient, if true, to be a perfect answer to the tender, for it alleges that the bonds tendered were not the bonds purchased. And the allegations relating to the kind, character and description of the bonds sold and the bonds tendered were pertinent to the inquiry whether the bonds tendered differed from the bonds purchased. The facts found in this part of the case do not seem to have been used or claimed for any other purpose. The record does not disclose that any relief was asked for. other than the delivery of bonds of the character and description of those purchased. No suggestion was made or could be properly made that the petitioner was entitled to damages for fraud or a false warranty in representing the bonds sold to be different from What they really were.' Indeed the petitioner’s brief shows, as well as the record, that he would have been satisfied with a decree directing the respondent to deliver to him bonds of the precise character of those he claimed to have purchased. Such was the issue and such was the relief demanded.

The evidence did not fully sustain the petitioner’s claim. He proved perhaps that the bonds purchased were represented to be of a certain character and that the bonds tendered were not strictly and in every respect as represented, but he failed to show that the bonds tendered were not in fact the bonds purchased. On the contrary the finding shows that they were the same bonds.

The result then is simply this:—the petitioner purchased certain bonds; the respondent represented them to be of a [587]*587given description; the proof shows that they were not as represented, but it does show that the bonds actually purchased were the identical bonds tendered. In this state of things the petitioner’s remedy, if he is not satisfied to take the bonds as they are, is not in equity, by a decree that the respondent procure and deliver to him bonds answering the description given, but an ordinary action at law for damages. In this proceeding he can only claim a decree directing the delivery of the identical bonds purchased.

We come now to consider the matters alleged as error by the petitioner.

1. The first error assigned relates to the validity and effect of the bonds and does not bear upon the vital question of identity. For if they were identical the effect of the tender will be the same, whether they were valid or invalid.

2. The second error assigned is as follows: in finding and adjudging “that the bonds tendered by said George on said 9th day of July, 1877, were the bonds mentioned in the agreements between said Treat and said George,” for that the bonds mentioned were “ good and regular, properly issued, and all right,” while the bonds tendered were neither countersigned nor certified as said act requires, nor were they under seal, and were and always had been owned by Joseph Richardson.

Here the petitioner confounds two questions which are ■radically different—first, the identity of the bonds, and second, their validity and legal effect. The first is a question of fact and is disposed of by the court below.

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Bluebook (online)
47 Conn. 582, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/treat-v-richardson-conn-1880.