Wilson v. Danderand
Wilson v. Danderand
Opinion of the Court
This action was brought to recover upon certain promissory notes made by defendant to Robert Burgess & Lukyn, a copartnership, and by them transferred to plaintiff. The notes represent a part of the purchase price of a horse sold by the firm named to defendant. Defendant interposed in defense that the horse so purchased was represented and warranted as an imported full-blood Perdieron, and
The principal question presented to this court is whether the evidence supports the verdict; though some of the assignments of error-challenge the correctness of certain rulings of the court on the trial which will be referred to in their order.
A subsequent attempt to register some of the offspring of the horse with the Perdieron Society of America failed for the reason, asserted by the officers of that society, that the animal was not a Perdieron, but a French draft, and could not therefore be registered as a Perdieren. This occurred some four years after the original' bargain and sale. The situation was called to the attention of Burgess & Lukyn, and after subsequent investigation and inquiry they reported to defendant that there had been a mistake in the delivery of the pedigree papers in France, at the time the horse, with others, was purchased, :and that in fact the horse Bysantin was not imported by them, but instead thereof a horse named “Aubepin,” which was a full-blood Per•cheron, and that the horse Aubepin was the animal sold and delivered to defendant. The trial below, as respects this branch of the case, «entered around this claim of mistake, and whether in fact the horse Audepin, an unquestioned Perdieron, was the one delivered to defendant. There can be no question, if the horse delivered to defendant was in fact a Perdieron, whatever may have been his name, that "the contract of warranty was performed, and defendant could in ■such case have no cause of complaint. But the question whether there was a mistake in the pedigree papers, as claimed by plaintiff, .•and whether a Percher on was in fact delivered to defendant, we con«lude, after a somewhat careful consideration of the record, were issues of fact for the jury. And since the trial court has approved the verdict we discover from the record no sufficient reason for interference. •
Burgess & Lukyn, in 1904, imported a number of horses from France, among them being the horse sold defendant. The lot contained both Perdieron and French draft horses. Certificates of pedigree were delivered for each horse, and were brought with the animals to this country. The- certificate for the horse Bysantin, printed
A deposition of the French trader, one Beatrix, was taken and read in evidence on the trial. He testified to the alleged mistake in delivering the wrong pedigree certificate, and further that he knew nothing about the horse Bysantin, whose pedigree he delivered, but did know that he sold the horse Aubepin to Burgess & Lukyn in 1904. If he knew nothing about Bysantin, as he testified, it is a little difficult to understand why he should be possessed of and deliver to these purchasers a certificate of his pedigree, unless it was the result of a general uncertainty in the delivery of such certificates, for which no sufficient explanation could be given. Beatrix was an extensive dealer in blooded horses and though he might after a lapse of four years be able to name all horses sold to a particular purchaser, and recall the fact that he gave out a wrong certificate as to one of them, the jury, from the evidence presented, might well have concluded that his testimony was unreliable, and that his claim of mistake not sufficiently shown. Again the French certificate particularly described the horse, and there was a conflict in the evidence whether the horse defendant received corresponded to the description of the horse Aubepin, thus presenting an issue of fact. Other items of evidence might be referred to, but we deem it unnecessary. We have considered it all with the result above stated. The verity of the alleged claim of mistake, and that of the witnesses was for the trial court and jury, and we are unable to say, as strongly urged by counsel for plaintiff, that the evidence is conclusive that defendant in fact received a Perdieron horse. The question was one of fact. The evidence tending
All assignments of error not specially mentioned have received consideration with the result that no reversible error appears.
Order affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- S. B. WILSON v. JOE DANDERAND
- Status
- Published