Acetylene Light, Heat & Power Co. v. Beck
Acetylene Light, Heat & Power Co. v. Beck
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
In this action, brought on a contract of subscription to stock, a judgment was entered for the plaintiff for want of a sufficient affidavit of defense. The subscription of the defendant was in writing, under his hand and seal, and in law is an ordinary contract : Railroad v. Graham, 36 Pa. 77. And with reference to other subscribers, it is a trilateral contract: Railroad v. Conway, 177 Pa. 364. In terms, it is an unqualified agreement to purchase eighty shares of stock, fifty per centum of the price to be paid down, and the balance as called for by the corporation. It contains no other condition or limitation. More than one year after its execution, the defendant paid an additional ten per centum of his subscription, upon call by the directors ; but a few months thereafter, when duly called upon for another instalment of ten per cent, he refused to pay on the ground, substantially, that certain alleged parol promises, set out in the affidavit of defense, and upon the faith of which he now says he subscribed, have not been fulfilled. It is not alleged that the parol agreement, now set up in defense, was omitted from the writing by fraud, accident, or mistake; nor is it averred that any part of the written contract itself has been violated by the plaintiff. The affidavit alleges that the subscription of the defendant was obtained by reason of false and fraudulent representations, but does not specify wherein the alleged parol statements were false or fraudulent. The most that can be said of the affidavit is that it recites alleged, unfulfilled promises, and unrealized expectations. Nothing definite is given, showing or
Conceding the truth of the affidavit, and giving full force to all proper inferences therefrom, enough has not been shown to entitle the defendant to go to a jury.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Acetylene Light, Heat & Power Company v. Charles Beck
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- 1 case
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- Syllabus
- Practice, O. P.-^Insufficienl affidavit — Subscription to stock — Alleged inducing promises. An affidavit is insufficient which sets up alleged unfulfilled promises and unrealized expectations as a defense to clearly expressed obligations of a written contract. In a suit on a sealed contract to recover a subscription to stock, in terms an unqualified agreement to pay fifty per centum of the price down and the balance as called for by the corporation, the affidavit of defense held insufficient which rested the defense on certain alleged parol promises upon which the subscription was induced and which had not been fulfilled. Held, insufficient also in that it did not allege that the promises were omitted from the written contract by fraud, accident or mistake, that part of the written contract itself had been violated, that it did not specify wherein the alleged promises were false or fraudulent, or state any specific loss.