Opinion ID: 1195916
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Fraud Question

Text: Appellants recognize, according to their brief, that the basic elements of an action for fraud are (1) false representations by defendant of material facts; and (2) reliance thereon by plaintiff to his damage. See 37 C.J.S. Fraud § 3, p. 215. The principal contention of the purchasers relative to false representations is that the defendant Lon Schiess told plaintiffs the motel was worth a minimum of $85,000. At the trial, plaintiffs offered the testimony of an expert witness who testified the property at the time of sale was worth $58,425. On that basis, plaintiffs consider they should have recovered damages of $26,575. Since the early days of this court, it has followed the general rule that an expression of opinion as to value is not fraud. Otherwise stated, a statement which is but an expression of opinion is generally not held to be the representation of a fact. First National Bank of Cheyenne v. Swan, 3 Wyo. 356, 23 P. 743, 750; McDonald v. Mulkey, 32 Wyo. 144, 231 P. 662, 668. See also Twing v. Schott, 80 Wyo. 100, 338 P.2d 839, 843. In the absence of special circumstances, the same principle is followed in other jurisdictions. [1] For example, in Byers v. Federal Land Co., 8 Cir.1924, 3 F.2d 9, 11, where agents represented land to be worth $35 an acre and the proofs were it was worth about $15 an acre, the court said a statement as an opinion, if it is not the real opinion may be a misrepresentation; but an honest opinion as to value is not a fraudulent misrepresentation. The court pointed out, in the Byers case, that it is especially true as to property without a definite or known market value that the expression of an opinion as to value will not be considered a fraudulent misrepresentation of fact. That would be the situation in the case at bar, where the motel had no established market value. In Byers, there was no attempt to prove the agents who stated the value of the land were acting in bad faith, or did not honestly believe the land was worth what was represented as its value. Likewise, in our case, there was no attempt to prove Lon Schiess acted in bad faith or that he did not honestly consider the motel worth $85,000. We cannot look beyond the record in this case and speculate as to whether it was or was not the real opinion of Lon Schiess that his property was worth at least $85,000 when he so stated to the purchasers. We can only say the plaintiffs have failed to offer any substantial evidence to show bad faith or to show the expression of value was not Schiess' real opinion. The testimony of plaintiffs' expert witness that the value of the motel at the time of sale was $58,425 falls short of being evidence of bad faith on the part of defendants, or that Schiess did not honestly consider the motel worth $85,000.