Court Opinion

ID: 3621512
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-06 00:03:09.955956+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:07:36.258769
License: Public Domain

I assent, after some hesitation to the affirmance of the judgment in this case, but not without some misgivings as to the soundness of the legal propositions involved in such affirmance. As a general principle, the false affirmation which should be permitted to operate *Page 685 
as the foundation of a cause of action or of a defense, should relate to a fact, and not to a mere opinion; and to a fact directly bearing upon the subject matter of the contract, and not to one merely collateral and incidental thereto. As applied to the present case, there was no false statement in regard to the existing value or market price of hops, or as to the price that the buyer or speculator was paying therefor; but there was a false statement — for so we must assume after a verdict of the jury in favor of the defendant — in regard to the fact that Wood had purchased the hops of Ellwood, a neighbor of the defendant. Ordinarily, such a fact could not be supposed likely to have any legal or perceptible bearing upon the negotiations of other parties; and yet, if we assume that Ellwood had experience in the cultivation of hops, and judgment and skill as to their probable rise or fall in market, and that the defendant had not; if we assume, further, that Countryman had confidence in the skill, judgment and experience of Ellwood, more than in his own, and would be likely to be governed by them in making a contract for himself; if we assume, further, that the article of hops was then as yet in a growing and immature state, and had not yet attained a fixed or determinate value in the market; and that its value, at the future period, when the hops would be ripe and cured and ready for delivery, would be subject to much fluctuation from ordinary circumstances, such as the influence of the weather upon the crops, the demand for the article, and the condition of the money market; if we assume, further, that the proposed buyer was aware of the reliance which the defendant placed upon the skill, judgment and experience of Ellwood, and of the influence they were likely to have upon the mind of the defendant in inducing a sale of his hops, or the contrary; and that Wood, with such knowledge, falsely and fraudulently represented that Ellwood had sold him his hops, with the view of entrapping the defendant into a sale of his crop — all of which assumptions, I think, we are warranted to *Page 686 
make from the verdict of the jury upon the facts of the case as presented in the testimony — I am inclined to think we are justified in concluding that, under the peculiar aspects of this case, the false representation of Wood was to a fact material to the contract, inasmuch as it had a vital bearing and influence upon the mind of the defendant in inducing him to enter into it. Considered in that light, I am on the whole inclined, though contrary to my first impressions, to regard the defense to the action as well founded in law and the judgment capable of being supported; but I do not wish to be regarded as extending the general principle beyond the just bearing of facts kindred to those which are presented in the present case.
With this explanation I assent to the affirmance of the judgment of the supreme court.
DENIO, Ch. J. and SELDEN, J., were also for affirmance; the latter on the ground stated by DAVIES, J., but expressing no opinion on the question of practice. WRIGHT, JOHNSON and INGRAHAM, JJ., were for reversal.
Judgment affirmed
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