Court Opinion

ID: 9857325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 14:30:04.772371+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:27.621454
License: Public Domain

Cotter, J.
(dissenting). The plaintiff alleged, the defendants admitted, and the trial court found that the transaction of December 15-16 was an extension, for consideration, of the original agreement entered into on November 3. Therefore the plaintiff’s basic cause of action must rest on the original agreement, as extended.
The word “extension,” as expressed in the instrument, has a clear and definite meaning which is capable of a precise and sensible application. Trumbull Electric Mfg. Co. v. John Cooke Co., 130 Conn. 12, 16, 31 A.2d 393. We are bound to regard the intent which the parties expressed in the language used in the extension agreement. The frequency of the use of the word “extension” was not accidental. Dorne v. Williams, 140 Conn. 193, 200, 98 A.2d 796.
“If the language used is plain and unambiguous, it must be given its natural and ordinary meaning. . . . The effect of the contract must be determined by the intent expressed in it and not by an extraneous intent which may be claimed or believed to have been in the minds of the parties.” Leathermode Sportswear, Inc. v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 150 Conn. 63, 66, 186 A.2d 79; 17 Am. Jur. 2d, Contracts, 241, 245. Since the language here was supplied *59by the plaintiff, it must be construed most strongly against him. Beach v. Beach, 141 Conn. 583, 593, 107 A.2d 629. Courts must allow parties to make their own contracts. Connecticut Union of Telephone Workers, Inc. v. Southern New England Telephone Co., 148 Conn. 192, 201, 169 A.2d 646.
The court found as facts that on Sunday, December 15,1963, the plaintiff visited the defendants and informed them that owing to his financial circumstances he had been unable to complete the deal and requested an extension, that both of the defendants orally consented to the extension requested by the plaintiff, and that on the following day, Monday, December 16, the plaintiff returned to the defendants’ residence with the written memorandum, which was then executed. The court concluded that this agreement constituted an extension of time for the performance of the original contract.
Connecticut law is clear that a contract executed on Sunday is void, and, where proof of the illegal transaction is necessary, it is fatal to the plaintiff’s cause. Grant v. McGrath, 56 Conn. 333, 335, 15 A. 370; Finn v. Donahue, 35 Conn. 216. Furthermore, our court has stated the rule to be that “the plaintiff cannot recover whenever it is necessary for him to prove, as a part of his cause of action, his own illegal contract, or other illegal transaction.” Frost v. Plumb, 40 Conn. 111, 113 (cited with approval in Nygren v. Potocek, 133 Conn. 649, 652, 54 A.2d 258). These cases prohibit the enforcement of, or the reliance on, a void Sunday agreement, and we are bound by the law stated therein unless we overrule established precedent and decide that a recognition, on a secular day, of a void Sunday contract is enough upon which to predicate a cause of action.
In this opinion Alcorn, J., concurred.