Smith v. Roberts
Smith v. Roberts
Opinion of the Court
1. An administrator obtained an order to sell tbe lands of his intestate, and after duly advertising them they were sold at public outcry, as required by the order. The land was sold by lots. One of the lots (No. 3) was bid in by S. for the sum of $1,510. S. failed and refused to pay the administrator the amount of his bid, claiming that he bid off lot No. 3 by mistake, intending to bid on lot No. 1, which was also advertised, and that the amount he bid on lot No. 3 was at least $500 more than its true value. The administrator subsequently (within 00 days) readvertised lot No. 3 for sale, and it was bought by W. for the sum of $1,050. Whereupon the administrator brought suit against S. for the sum of $470.50, the difference between the bids for lot No. 3 at the two sales, plus the additional expense incurred in readvertising and reselling. On the trial of the case the court ruled out the following question asked a witness for the movant, and the answer: Q. “Did that lot [No. 3] then [January, 1909] bring its fair markét value at the last sale?” A. “Yes, and more too.” Held, that this ruling was not error for the reason assigned, viz.: that an administrator can never be held responsible, as a matter of law, for an amount greater than the fair market value of the property sold or disposed of; and that if the administrator did obtain the true market value of the land at the last sale, then in no event could the defendant be held responsible for the difference in the price of the land at the first and last sale. Nor was the testimony admissible “because it showed conclusively that movant did make an honest mistake in that he would not have bid at all on lot No. 3, and it should have been allowed to go to the jury to rebut the testimony of the administrator, who swore that lot No. 3 did not bring its fair market value at the last sale.”
1a) The measure of damages in such a case is the difference between, the price the land brought at the first sale and the price it brought at the second sale, together with additional costs incurred in reselling; and it is immaterial whether or not the land brought its value on the second sale.
2. The court charged the jury as follows: “I also charge you this principle of law, as applicable to this case: If you are satisfied by a preponderance of the testimony in this case that on the first Tuesday in November, 1908, the defendant, at the time he bid for certain land exposed for sale by the administrator, belonging to the estate of Mr. Wood, if at that time he was laboring under an honest mistake that he was bidding on lot No. 1, when really he was bidding on lot No. 3, if the
Judgment reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.