O'Neill v. Ogden Aerie, No. 118, F. O. E.
O'Neill v. Ogden Aerie, No. 118, F. O. E.
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff leased the third floor of a building at Ogden City, Utah, to the defendant Ogden Arie, No. 118, Fraternal Order of Eagles, a fraternal lodge organization. .The lease contained the following covenant; “That neither the lessee nor its legal representatives will let or underlet said premises, or any part thereof, or assign this lease for any other purpose than for lodge use, without the written consent of the lessor first having been obtained thereto; it being undei-stood by and between the parties hereto that the said lessee shall have the right and privilege to lease said premises to
Over the objections of plaintiff, the trial court permitted the defendant hy parol evidence to prove a usage or custom prevalent among the lodges and fraternal organizations at Ogden City with.respect to social entertainments for their members and friends, and in that connection the giving of dances, the acts and conversations of the parties to the contract contemporaneous with and immediately prior to the execution of the lease, their subsequent conduct, and the situation of the parties and thé circumstances under which the lease was executed, for the purpose of explaining the meaning of the terms “lodge purpose” and “lodge use,” and of ascertaining the intention of the parties and properly construing the writing. We think no error was committed in the rulings. (17 Cyc. 668-682; 4 Elliott on Evidence, sections 605-607.)
The contention made by appellant that these words have a common and well-defined- meaning, free from uncertainty and ambiguity, and that the sense and meaning of the langauge may not be investigated and ascertained by evidence dehors the contract, is not tenable. We do not well see how the court could intelligently determine the meaning of these terms, and the sense in which they were used
The judgment of the court below is affirmed, with costs.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- O'NEILL v. OGDEN AERIE, NO. 118, F. O. E.
- Status
- Published