Thompson v. Chambers
Thompson v. Chambers
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Plaintiff purchased furniture from the defendants, upon the alleged representation by defendants that they knew the mate
The portions of the charge of the court below assigned for error contained nothing of which the defendants had any reasonable right to complain. The gravamen of these assignments of error is that a misrepresentation as to a material fact about which the defendants knew nothing, at the same time alleging that they had knowledge of the fact, which afterwards proved to be untrue, was equal to their having knowingly misrepresented. We cannot regard this as error. As was said by the President Judge of this court in Lake v. Weber, 6 Pa. Superior Ct. 42, “ A misrepresentation which possibly might not be sufficient to ground an action for damages may be sufficient to entitle the party deceived to rescind the contract or to defeat or defend pro tanto an action upon it. It is perfectly safe to say, however, that so far as the right of the promissor to defend the action is concerned, it is immaterial whether the other party knew that the representation was false or made it without any knowledge upon the subject. In either case the law as well as the common rules of fair dealing forbids that he should make a misrepresentation for the purpose of deceiving, which does deceive and profit thereby to the other’s injury. There are cases, and this is one, where to assert for truth what one professes to know and may fairly be supposed to know, but does not know to be so, is equivalent to the assertion of a known falsehood and may be so treated in determining the right of the other party to rescind the contract or, if the falsity of the declaration be discovered too late for that, to defend an action upon it.” See cases there cited. The court below, it seemto us, went no farther than this, and to hold the contrary would be destructive of all fair dealing. It is true that “ A party
Reference
- Full Case Name
- George R. Thompson v. J. W. Chambers, F. R. Megahan and G. B. Reed, trading as Chambers, Megahan & Reed
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Declaration or statement — Amendment. An amendment by way of substituting one declaration or statement for another will be allowed where the cause of action is the same. Sale — Alderman—Jurisdiction. An alderman has jurisdiction in an action of assumpsit to recover money paid under a sale rescinded by the purchaser because of misrepresentations. That damages were claimed in addition to the return of the money and that they were allowed by the alderman but not in the court of common pleas on appeal does not alter the form of action from assumpsit to deceit. Sale — Rescission—Misrepresentation—Remedy—Fraud. A sale of personal property which has been induced by false representations made by the seller may be rescinded by the purchaser upon his discovery of the misrepresentations. To assert for truth what' one professes to know and what he may be fairly supposed to know, but does not know, is equivalent to a known falsehood. One seeking to rescind a contract for the sale of personal property and to recover the consideration which he has paid, must return what he has received in as good condition as it could have been kept with all reasonable care.