Delaware County Trust Co. v. Keenan
Delaware County Trust Co. v. Keenan
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Hugh McCaffery leased unto Mary Keenan certain premises for a term of five years at a monthly rental of $100. He died and the trustees under his will brought suit for the rent. On behalf of the tenant a witness testified that Mary Keenan the tenant sent for her landlord and stated to him that she had a chance to sell out her business and the party who desired to purchase, wanted to have a lease on the premises, that as he knew, she had never had a written lease and that she now desired one; that McCaffery agreed to give her a written lease but informed her that in the event of a sale of her establishment, the rent was to be $100, but as long as she remained as tenant, it would be $75 per month. The lease was accordingly prepared by her and called for a rental of $100 per month. The sale fell through and for three months the tenant paid the old rent of $65 and thereafter $75 per month up to the date of the death of her landlord. Checks were produced showing the amount of each monthly payment and as to this there is no dispute.
The plaintiff contends there was nothing to submit to the jury, that the written contract governs and that the
The court held that there was proper corroboration of the witness in that the landlord accepted $65 for three months and thereafter a check for $75 each month up to the date of his death, a period of nine months. We agree with the lower trial judge that the payment of the monthly sum uninterruptedly and without variation as to amount is not explainable except by the adoption of the truth of the narrative of the witness. These circumstances plainly corroborated her and brought the defendant’s proof within the required rule.
The assignments are overruled and judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Delaware County Trust Co., Trustee v. Keenan
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Contracts — Contemporaneous parol agreement — Evidence—Sufficiency — Words and phrases — “Contemporaneous In an action to recover rent under a lease a witness for the defendant testified that the lease was executed in accordance with a verbal understanding that the rent specified should only apply in the case of a sale by the tenant and an assignment of the lease, and that a lower rate should obtain as long as the defendant continued as tenant. Such testimony, corroborated by the fact that the landlord accepted rent for nine months in accordance with the verbal understanding, was sufficient to take the case to the jury. The word “contemporaneous,” when used with reference to parol agreements, in explanation or modification of written instruments, does not necessarily import absolute coincidence in point of time. A parol agreement may be a contemporaneous parol agreement, even though a week intervened between the agreement and the execution of the written contract to which it related, if the agreement and tbe contract were part of one transaction, and nothing intervened to interrupt the fixed purpose of the parties.