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128 Pa. 436

Stoddard v. Emery

Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, McKean County · decided 1889-10-07

No. 301 January Term 1889, Sup. Ct.; court below, No. 235 February Term 1882, G. P. On January 18, 1882, an action in case was brought by Heman Janes against L. Emery, Jr. Tbe defendant pleaded not guilty. On December 9, 1886, on leave given, tbe plaintiff changed tbe form of action from case to covenant, and subsequently, also by leave of court, tbe record was amended by naming as the plaintiff Truman M. Stoddard, for the use of Heman Janes.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1889-10-07

How this case has been cited

Cited by 28 later decisions — most recently August 2015 · most notably Gulf Production Co. v. Kishi (1937), Kansas Baptist Convention v. Mesa Operating Ltd. Partnership (1993)

1 district · 27 state decisions

6018891890190019101920193019401950196019701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1Opinion,

Mb. Justice Gbeen:

¶2There was no evidence to sustain the allegation of an omitted parol agreement left out of the written lease by fraud or mistake, and if there had been it is at least very doubtful whether any recovery could be had upon such an agreement or stipulation in an action of covenant. It is perfectly well settled that when a parol agreement changing or adding to a previously executed sealed contract is subsequently made, the whole becomes parol, and the remedy is assumpsit, and not covenant. Vicary v. Moore, 2 W. 451, and a number of cases which have followed it, are examples of this kind.

¶3The proposition that there was an implied covenant to bore wells every four months, or as often as it was customary to *442to put down additional wells, in the absence of any express contract is altogether untenable. The parties provided by the express terms of their contract how many wells should be put down, and that provision of the contract determines the question. When the number is expressed, there is no room for any implication that there should be some other number. Had there been nothing said in the contract on the subject, there would of course have arisen an implication that the property should be developed reasonably, and evidence of a custom of reasonable development by boring a given number of wells in a certain space of time, would have been competent and perhaps controlling. But that doctrine has no application in a case where the parties have expressly agreed in the contract how many wells shall be bored.

¶4We agree with the learned court below that there was no breach of the lease prior to the sale of the reversion by Stoddard in January, 1878, and that being so there was no right of action by Stoddard. If there were any breaches after the purchase of Janes, there would be no right of action in Stoddard, and there could be no recovery in an action brought in his name. The second proposition discussed by counsel for plaintiff in error is of no relevancy, because the only kind of breaches for which recovery is there claimed is breaches of implied covenants occurring before the sale. But we have already held there were no such implied covenants, and hence there could be no recovery for an alleged breach of them.

¶5Judgment affirmed.

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