Matson v. Slaugenhaupt
Matson v. Slaugenhaupt
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The issue tried in this case was whether the defendant had made with the plaintiffs the oral lease declared upon for the term from June 1, 1911, to April 1, 1912, or whether it was simply a lease from month to month as averred by the defendants. The issue was purely one of fact and the verdict'of the’jury settles the contention in favor of the plaintiffs.
A lease was prepared, signed by the plaintiffs and handed to the defendant, who refused to sign because it was not prepared according to his understanding of its terms, viz: the time when the rent should be payable. He refused, although called upon, to produce the lease at the trial. From the testimony of the defendant it appears that the minds of the parties met only upon one question, which was, that the defendant was to have a tenancy from month to month. He says: “We talked about three years and we talked about five years......I don’t know whether it was three years or five years,” but nothing was agreed to. He said that after he took possession, Matson asked him for a lease, and they went over the thing and he told him if he would make out a lease from month to month he would sign it. He said: “And so we decided on that, and he said he would mail me a lease, which he did later, and it was not in accordance with our agreement and therefore I refused to sign the lease.” On cross examination he said that “I told him (Matson) if he would make out a lease from month to month I would sign it and if I stayed beyond the 1st of April......if I wanted to stay any longer than the 1st of April, 1912, I wanted an option from that on.”
It will thus be clearly seen by the testimony of the de
There being no error in the record, the judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.