Court Opinion

ID: 9679795
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:07:36.551803+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:20.700123
License: Public Domain

McGILL, Justice
(dissenting).
I am unable to agree with the majority opinion and disposition of this case. The sole allegation in plaintiff’s pleading on which the opinion and judgment is based is found in the third paragraph of plaintiff’s second amended original petition, which is:
“That said home was built by the' Defendant upon plans and specifications prepared by the Defendant and was sold by an agent for the Defendant and upon representations during the sale that said house was well constructed and that Plaintiffs would have no serious problems with the construction of said home.”
Whether this allegation is sufficient to charge that the representation included the statement that the house was well constructed so that it would not crack, even though built on a clayey subsoil, I seriously doubt. However, the evidence is all to the effect that the house was well constructed, apart from the fact that it was constructed on a clayey subsoil, and unless this fact can be considered as a part of the construction there was no misrepresentation. However, plaintiffs alleged in the 7th paragraph of their second amended original petition that “if plaintiffs had known of such soil conditions they would not have purchased the property.” The jury found in answer to special issue No. 7 that plaintiffs did know on February 9, 1951, at the time of the purchase of the property, that the house was built on a clay subsoil, and also in answer to special issue No. 9 that defendant or others informed the plaintiffs of the condition of the soil beneath the house prior to February 9, 1951. As conceded by the opinion, the evidence was ample to support this finding. Therefore, it seems to me that by their own admission in their pleading, plaintiffs refute any fact finding that they relied on any representation of defendant as to the condition of the subsoil, and that the house was well built, or built so that it would not crack even though built on a clay subsoil. This is the only representation which is a basis for recovery, and in my opinion it is insufficient.
The opinion seems to give a great deal of weight to the fact that defendant represented to plaintiffs that a crack that had appeared in the house was an ordinary settling crack which he, defendant, would repair. Apart from the fact that there is no pleading that this was a false representation, or that plaintiffs relied thereon, there is nothing in the record to show that this representation was false. The particular crack to which defendant referred may have been an ordinary settling crack, so far as the evidence discloses. Certainly we are not justified in assuming that this was a false representation.
I respectfully dissent.