General Motors Truck Co. v. Philadelphia Paving Co.
General Motors Truck Co. v. Philadelphia Paving Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This is an appeal from a judgment entered for want of a sufficient affidavit of defense. The action was replevin, brought to recover possession of two gasoline motor trucks. Defendant filed a counter-bond and retained possession of the trucks. In plaintiff’s statement it was averred that on October 9, 1913, the motor trucks were delivered to defendant in pursuance of a written agreement, entitled a lease. By the terms of the agreement, defendant was to pay plaintiff as rental for the motor trucks, on signing the lease, $862.50; on delivery of the goods, $1,295.75; thirty days after delivery, $862.50; on April 1, 1914, $560.67, and on the first day of each month thereafter for nine months, $560.62. Defendant was to give plaintiff promissory notes for the last ten
In the affidavit of defense, the averments of the statements are admitted, but there is an attempt to set up as a defense, the breach of an oral agreement, alleged to have been made contemporaneously with the written contract, and as an inducement to the same, by which plaintiff agreed with defendant, that a well equipped service station would be installed in the City of Philadelphia, at which repairs to the motors could be made, and new parts furnished as required. It was alleged that plaintiff had not installed such a service station, and that defendant had thereby suffered damages in excess of the sum claimed by plaintiff to be due as rent. The court below held that the affidavit of defense was insufficient, and made absolute a rule for judgment. Defendant has appealed. There is no averment, that the terms of the alleged contemporaneous oral agreement were omitted
Another reason for sustaining the entry of judgment
The assignment of error is overruled, and the judgment is affirmed.
Reference
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- General Motors Truck Company v. Philadelphia Paving Company
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- 14 cases
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- Syllabus
- Contracts — Written instruments — Variation by parol — Replevin —Set-off—Affidavits of defense — Insufficient averments. 1. The terms of a written instrument cannot be changed byparol evidence of an alleged contemporaneous oral agreement, in the absence of allegation and proof that the provisions of the oral agreement were omitted from the writing by fraud, accident, or mistake. 2. Replevin is in form an action ex delicto and in such action the defendant cannot avail himself of a defense in the nature of a set-off, for the reasons that the demand is uncertain in its nature, and the fact that plaintiff is indebted to the defendant is no justification for a tortious act. 3. In an action of replevin for motor trucks in defendant’s possession under a lease which provided that upon the lessee’s failure to pay a stipulated rental, the lessors should have the right to take immediate possession of the goods wherever found and that “there are no representations, agreements or undertaking, express or implied, relating to said goods, other than those contained herein,” where from the statement of claim it appeared that the rental had not been paid, an affidavit of defense alleging the breach of a contemporaneous oral agreement by plaintiff to establish a well equipped service station at which repairs to the motors could be made and new parts furnished as required, at-1 tempted to vary the terms of a written instrument by parol, without alleging the omission of anything from the writing by fraud, accident, or mistake, and further attempted to set up a defense in the nature of a set-off, and was properly held to be insufficient to prevent summary judgment..