Court Opinion

ID: 9621155
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:52:28.04376+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:58.345423
License: Public Domain

*828Buchanan, J.,
dissenting:
I agree with the conclusion that the evidence in this case does not support the items in the verdict of $250 for loss of use of the house and $250 for punitive damages against H. K. Smith.
I disagree with the conclusion that there can be no recovery-on account of the furnace.
The plaintiffs based their action upon the charge that the defendants had represented to them that the furnace in the house was in good condition; that the plaintiffs relied on that representation; that the representation was false; that the furnace was cracked and worthless, as the defendants well knew, which necessitated the installation of a new furnace, causing damage to the plaintiffs.
If the plaintiffs proved that case, and the jury have said they did, then the plaintiffs were entitled to recover. In Jefferson Standard Ins. Co. v. Hedrick, 181 Va. 824, 833-4, 27 S. E. (2d) 198, 202, this was stated to be the rule long adopted and approved in Virginia:
“ ‘The law is well settled that if one represents as true what is really false, in such a way as to induce a reasonable man to believe it, and the representation is meant to be acted on; and he to whom the representation is made, believing it to be true, acts on it, and in consequence thereof sustains damage, there is such fraud as will support an action for deceit at law, or a bill for rescission of the transaction in equity. Whether the representation is made innocently or knowingly, if acted on, the effect is the same. In the one case the fraud is constructive; in the other it is actual.’ ”
See also Westover Court Corp. v. Eley, 185 Va. 718, 40 S. E. (2d) 177.
There was some conflict in the evidence as to what representations were made, but it was the function of the jury, not ours, to settle the conflicts, and they believed the evidence of the plaintiffs.
Plaintiff Voss testified that when he and Mrs. Voss went *829with defendant Smith, the real estate agent, to look at the house in December, 1952, the house was cold and he asked Smith what was wrong with the furnace. Smith said nothing was wrong and later explained that Mrs. Poe was not financially able to operate it. “Mr. Smith told me specifically that there was nothing wrong with the furnace.”
Again Voss said when they went down to the basement on that occasion he opened the furnace door and looked inside but it was dark and the inside was covered with ashes and soot so he could not tell anything about it, and at that time Smith repeated that “the furnace was in good shape and that it was a good standard make;” that Smith said Mrs. Poe had told him there was something wrong with the controls, that it cut on and off at the wrong time, but Voss testified there was nothing in what he saw or heard that indicated there was anything wrong with the furnace itself, “Not one single whisper.”
Voss further testified that sometime afterwards he told Mrs. Poe that Smith had said something was wrong with the controls and he asked her what she had done to find out what the trouble was; that Mrs. Poe replied that she had had a furnace-man or plumber look at it and he could find nothing wrong, and that there was nothing wrong with the furnace.
Mrs. Voss corroborated her husband’s testimony.
According to the plaintiffs’ evidence these statements by Mrs. Poe and her agent Smith were untrue, and known by them to be untrue. They were made in December, 1952, and some weeks prior thereto there had been an explosion in the furnace. Mrs. Poe had called a plumber to see about it. The latter testified that apparently the furnace had frozen, the sections were broken and would not hold water, and it was damaged to such extent that it would cost more to repair it than to replace it. He said that the defects could not have been seen without a light being put inside or the water being turned on, which the average layman would not have done, “You have to get in the furnace and find out what is wrong. You can’t just walk up and tell. You have to inspect it all over.”
*830Another plumber testified that Mrs. Poe called him to come out there, that there had been an explosion that jarred the house; that he examined the boiler “and found that it was cracked in the arch in the boiler, and it looked like approximately two of the sections were busted.” He told her the best thing to do was to put in a new boiler; that it would cost about $300 to make repairs and he could not guarantee the result.
The jury could believe from the evidence that the plaintiffs relied on these assurances of Mrs. Poe and her agent that the. furnace was in good condition and that they did not rely on any independent investigation. The evidence shows that Voss asked Bailey, an officer in a fuel company, to advise him what kind of coal was needed for the furnace and to see what was wrong with the controls. Bailey testified that this was the only purpose of his visit; that he turned the stoker on and found that it worked, but he told Voss he could not check the control because it wasn’t operating, “and if there was anything wrong with the controls they could be repaired at a nominal fee.” He recommended that the furnace be vacuum cleaned. This was done and the defects were then disclosed to the plaintiffs for the first time. Plaintiffs’ evidence was that it was after Christmas, 1952, when they were informed, of the true condition of the furnace. The purchase transaction seems to have been completed on December 29, 1952. The jury could have found from the evidence that the defects were not discovered until after this closing date. But if they were discovered before that time, the plaintiffs still had the right to elect to take the property under their contract and bring their action for the deceit. Wilson v. Hundley, 96 Va. 96, 30 S. E. 492.
The court properly instructed the jury that the measure of plaintiffs’ damage was the difference between the value of the property as it was and as it was represented to be, and it' is clear that that is what the jury found in the item of their verdict “$500.00 for furnace of equal value.” The plaintiffs were suing for damage because of the condition of the fur*831nace, not of any other part of the house. The evidence in the case related only to the furnace. Surely they could prove the damage they claimed by direct evidence about the furnace rather than by the indirect and awkward way of proving what the whole house was worth as it was and as it was represented to be. On the pleadings and the evidence the only question at issue was the damage suffered as measured by the difference in the value of the furnace as it was and as it had been represented to be. The $500 found by the jury in response to that issue was supported by the evidence and in my opinion the judgment below should be affirmed to that extent.
Smith, J., joins in this dissent.