Court Opinion

ID: 9715177
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:56:47.285424+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:32.235857
License: Public Domain

GARRARD, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s assertion that the provision of the formal contract calling for a down payment of one thousand dollars ($1,000) and stating “the receipt whereof by seller is hereby acknowledged” is contractual in nature and thus precludes dispute by parol evidence.
As our Supreme Court recognized in Stewart v. Chicago, etc. R.R. and Chicago and Indiana Coal Ry. Co. (1895), 141 Ind. 55, 40 N.E. 67, cited by the majority, the quoted phrase is a recital of fact. As such it is evidence of payment but as with other questions of fact it is subject to dispute. It may be contradicted by competent evidence.
Phrased somewhat differently, it appears to me that the appropriate inquiry is whether the phrase in question defines the obligations of the parties or purports to report the performance of obligations defined elsewhere.
If the former, then it is within the parties’ province to agree to what they choose, and if the agreement is clear they may not vary its terms by parol evidence that a sow’s ear was intended to mean a silk purse.
However, if the latter instance is involved, then I believe, as with other issues of performance or breach, the parties are free to adduce evidence to establish the fact. I would thus say that while the amount of the consideration is not subject to dispute, its payment or more pointedly its non-payment, may always be proved.
I do not, however, subscribe to the appellant’s further assertion that this non-payment of the down payment worked an avoidance of the entire contract. Therefore, since I agree with the balance of the majority’s analysis, I would remand the case for hearing on whether the down payment was made and such adjustment of the money judgment as might thereby become necessary. In all other respects, I would affirm.