Court Opinion

ID: 9831143
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 20:51:30.622924+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:31.872115
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
We were mistaken in the statement made in the opinion that the defendant testified that he acted on the instructions sent him by the plaintiff after the making of the renewal contract of January 1, 1919. The defendant does testify at great length as to the receipt of such instructions, price lists, etc., and his testimony leaves the impression that he was governed by these instructions; but we have carefully read his entire testimony, and find that he does not say that he followed these instructions or acted under them. The contract itself provided that such letters, bulletins, and literature of the nature sent out by the plaintiff and received by the defendant should not in any wise “alter, modify, change, or affect this agreement and shall only be considered as educational and advisory.” While under the authorities above cited this provision does not give a conclusive effect to the character of such subsequent transactions, yet we would not be warranted in indulging the inference that the mere writing of the letters and receipt of them by defendant constituted in itself a modification of the terms of the contract. The contract itself was legal. The burden of proof was upon the defendant to show such modification thereof by secret understanding or subsequent modification as rendered it illegal. The defendants’ assent was necessary to any modification of the contract. The evidence fails to show this assent.
The motion will be granted, and the judgment reversed and the cause remanded.