Seiger v. Gerber
Seiger v. Gerber
Opinion of the Court
This case comes before the Daw Court upon exceptions and motion for a new trial by defendant after verdict of the jury against him.
The case submitted to the jury under instructions from the court, as appears from the plaintiff’s declaration and defendant’s pleadings, is briefly as follows: The plaintiff, Se’iger, leased from the defendant, Gerber, by written lease in the usual form, dated December 18, 1909 “the following described premises, to wit: the entire building situated at No. 2 Portland Pier in said city, county and State, with the exception of the fruit store at the corner of said building.” The term of the lease was four years from the first day of January, 1910. The rental was $330 per year, payable $25.50 monthly in advance. Dessor to pay taxes and water rates and do outside repairing and lessee to do inside repairing.
The defendant, Gerber, pleaded the general issue with brief statement admitting the erection of the adjoining building and that it shut out the light of the plaintiff’s quiet enjoyment, but denied that any covenant had been broken, and alleged that the plaintiff consented to the erection, of the building that shut out the plaintiff’s light, and further that whatever rights the plaintiff had were waived for the consideration that Gerber in his conveyance of the said wall rights to the proprietors of Portland Pier had procured for Seiger the right to continue to rent from them for two years the lower floor of another adjacent 'building, this being the same floor then occupied by Seiger as tenant at will for a place of storage.
It is the opinion of the court that upon the question of waiver and estoppel the defendant’s contention must prevail. The plaintiff’s admission, that he was present at Booth’s office when $300, the amount which the proprietors of the attaching structure were to pay, and that he, himself, told Gerber, through Booth, of this offer together with the positive testimony of 'Gerber and the convincing testimony of Booth, that the plaintiff consented to Gerber’s taking the $300 and even urged it, constitutes a degree of evidence so overwhelming that we cannot avoid the conclusion that the plaintiff, when he denies that he consented to Gerber making the lease for $300, was mistaken. We should put but little stress upon Gerber’s testimony alone as against that of the plaintiff but the
Upon all the evidence it is the opinion of the court that proof of both waiver and estoppel on the part of the plaintiff was ample to establish the defendant’s contention upon these issues. Libby v. Haley, 91 Maine, 333; Rodgers v. Street Railway, 100 Maine, 90.
Motion sustained.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Samuel Seiger v. David Gerber David Gerber v. Samuel Seiger
- Status
- Published