Court Opinion

ID: 9833218
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 22:32:16.524282+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:44:00.623485
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
[12] In considering the tenth and eleventh assignments of error we gave special issue No. 6 a construction not given it by either party to the suit, and overruled the as*638signments upon a theory not urged by ap-pellee. We gave the issue its liberal construction, but the parties themselves construed it as an inquiry whether plaintiff led Bennett to believe he was willing to retain the cattle — in other words, willing to rescind the trade. As it was admitted that plaintiff told Bennett he was going to ship the cattle to Et. Worth while he had them together and sell them on the market, it is apparent that the expression “retain the cattle for his own use” was used for the purpose of expressing the idea that Dunn was to retain the cattle and permit Bennett to rescind the contract. No objection was made by plaintiff to the submission of said issue No. 6, and both parties treated it as being properly submitted under the pleadings and evidence. The pleading raising the issue, although a conclusion, was not excepted to, and, in the absence of exception, we think must be treated as raising the issue. The evidence was so conflicting upon the issue, as it was construed by the parties, that the jury failed to agree. There can be no doubt under the law that if one party to a contract makes statements to the other which are reasonably calculated to lead the other to believe, and do lead him to believe, that it is satisfactory for the contract to be rescinded, and thereupon such other treats the contract as rescinded, the party making such statements is estopped from contending that the contract has not been rescinded. Appellee, in his brief, says that the issue, “Did Dunn lead Bennett to believe that he was released?” was superfluous, because it was included in the issue whether Dunn released Bennett from the obligations of the contract, and that, in answering that he was not released, the jury found he was not released either by agreement or estoppel. This contention is without merit, in view of the fact that two separate issues were submitted with the acquiescence of both parties, one of which covered the question of release by agreement and the other that of release by estoppel. We are stating the construction placed thereon by the parties. Appellee may be correct in his view that a general issue could have been submitted involving the sole question whether Bennett was in fact released, and appropriate instructions given as to the facts necessary to be found in order to show a release by agreement or by es-toppel ; but in this case separate questions were asked, and no instructions were required. One of these questions was never answered, and it is useless to show that it could have been dispensed with, had certain instructions been given the jury, so as to let them know that the issue thereby made was included in another question. We conclude that it would be unjust to give the issue a construction not given it by the parties and the jury, and that the said assignments 10 and 11 should be sustained.
[13] In disposing of assignments Nos. 12, 13, and 30, we again gave the pleading upon which special issue No. 6 was based its most literal construction, and therefore concluded that the allegation that Dunn told Bennett that he would be forced to ship and resell the cattle made an issue, so that it became unnecessary to deny the pleading upon which said special issue No. 6 was based. Upon further consideration, we conclude that issue was not joined on this plea, as is required by statute.
We overruled the assignment relating to the -overruling of defendant’s application for continuance without discussing the same; and, while appellant makes a very strong argument in support of the assignment, we conclude that our former ruling was correct. At any rate, as the judgment will be reversed upon other grounds, the question becomes an immaterial one.
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded.