Silver v. Frazier
Silver v. Frazier
Opinion of the Court
No cause of action is set out in the second count of the declaration. Putting aside all other difficulties in the way of sustaining the plaintiff’s case on the facts alleged, it appears to us that there are two obvious and insurmountable obstacles to the maintenance of the action. The first is, that the subject matter of the alleged false representations is one con cerning which it must be presumed, in the absence of averments to the contrary, that the plaintiff and his agent had ample opportunity, by the use of due care and diligence, of obtaining information and discovering the exact truth. It is not alleged that the boundaries of the plaintiff’s land were peculiarly within the knowledge of the defendant, or difficult of being ascertained by the use of means within the reach of the plaintiff’s agent to whom the statements of the defendant were made, if he had
The other objection to the maintenance of the action is, that the alleged loss or injury suffered by the plaintiff is not the direct and immediate result of the defendant’s wrongful act. Stripped of its technical language, the declaration charges only that the agent employed by the plaintiff to do a certain piece of work disobeyed the orders of his principal, and was induced to do so by the false statements of the defendant. In other words, the plaintiff alleges that his agent violated his duty and thereby did him an injury, and seeks to recover damages therefor by an action against a third person, on the ground that he induced the agent by false statements to go contrary to the orders of his principal. Such an action is, we believe, without precedent. The immediate cause of injury and loss to the plaintiff is the breach of duty of his agent. This is the proximate cause of damage. The motives or inducements which operated to cause the agent to do an unauthorized act are too remote to furnish a good ground of action to the
Exceptions overruled.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Peter Silver v. Lyman B. Frazier
- Status
- Published