Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

13 Johns. 257

Smith v. Ware

New York Supreme Court

Decided May 15, 1816

New York Supreme Court · decided 1816-05-15

IN ERROR, to the court of common pleas of the county of Washington. This was an action of assumpsit, brought, in the court below, by Smith, the plaintiff in error, against Ware, the defendant in error. The declaration consisted merely of the money counts, to which the defendant pleaded non assumpsit. The plaintiff claimed compensation for a deficiency in the quantity of land of a certain farm sold by the defendant to the plaintiff.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1816-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently July 1902

16 state decisions — followed in 10 states

301816182018301840185018601870188018901900decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Spencer, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court. It cannot be pretended that the defendant was. under any moral obligation, to pay for the deficiency in the quantity of land sold and conveyed to the plaintiff. There is no pretence of any fraud in relation to the sale, and the deed is very explicit in its terms. The land granted was truly described, and it is evident, from the deed, that the parties do not contract, in reference to any specific quantity of land; for the deed states, that the tract is_ supposed to contain 93» acres. There would be no mutuality between the parties, if we were to say, that the defendant was morally Bound to make up any deficient quantity, because it is very certain'that, had'there been an overplus, the plaintiff could not have been compelled to pay, for the excess. We have q right to infer, that the deed contains no covenant of warranty; the defendant, therefore, sold, and the plaintiff agreed to take the, land, under a conveyance containing no stipulations, either aa to quantity or title. Under these circumstances, a promise to pay for any of the land included in the surveyor-general’s survey was without a consideration.

¶2There is much nice learning in the books, upon the point of moral obligation, and as to what is, or is not, a sufficient consideration to uphold a promise. The result of all the cases on, this head is, I think, admirably summed up in a note to 3 Bos. & Pull. 249. “ An express promise, therefore, as it should seem, can only revive a precedent good consideration, which might have been enforced at law, through the medium of an implied promise, had it not been suspended by some positive rule of law; but can give no original right of action,, if the obligation on which it is founded never could have been enforced', at law, though not barred by any legal maxim or statute provision.”

¶3The judgment, in this case, must be affirmed.

¶4Judgment affirmed,

/13/johns/257 · .json · Public domain