Teague v. Hall

SLOSS, J.

Action to recover damages for deceit. The defendant, Hall, had established citrus nurseries upon two tracts of land held by him under lease. One was known as the Keim nursery and the other as the Yost nursery. On March 28, 1909, the parties entered into a contract whereby Hall sold to Teague all of his interest in these two nurseries in consideration of the sum of thirty-seven thousand dollars, five hundred dollars of this sum to be paid by the conveyance of a certain lot, and the balance to be paid in gold coin in certain installments running over a period of a year and a half or thereabouts. Under the contract, Hall reserved the right to take four thousand lemon trees from the Yost nursery.

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The contract contained this clause: “It is understood that there is now in round numbers 60,000 number of budded trees upon the land described in the Keim lease and 25,000 of budded stock on the Tost lease.”

It is not claimed that the clause last quoted constituted a warranty. The complaint alleged, however, that at the time of the execution of the contract the defendant, for the purpose of inducing the plaintiff to enter into it, falsely represented that the respective nurseries contained the number of budded trees mentioned in the contract, to wit, sixty thousand in the Keim nursery and twenty-five thousand in the Tost nursery, and that plaintiff, who had no knowledge of the number of trees in the nurseries or either of them, entered into the contract relying on said representations. It was alleged, further, that plaintiff subsequently discovered that there were not over 65,346 budded trees in the two nurseries, and that he had been damaged in the sum of twelve thousand dollars, for which he prayed judgment. At the time of his discovery of the facts, plaintiff had paid the defendant thirty-four thousand dollars of the contract price.

The defendant, in his answer, admitted the making of the contract and the payment of the thirty-four thousand dollars thereunder. He denied all the material allegations regarding fraud. By counterclaim he sought to recover the balance of three thousand dollars due under the terms of the agreement.

The action was tried before a jury, which returned a verdict in favor of the defendant for three thousand dollars. Judgment was entered thereon. The plaintiff appeals from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.