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142 Ark. 553

Fleming v. Harris

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided March 8, 1920

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1920-03-08

P. Hem derson, Chancellor; STATEMENT OF FACTS. The plaintiff, J. E. Harris, purchased a farm consisting of eighty acres of land from the defendant, W. A. Fleming, received a deed, and paid the whole amount of the purchase money. This suit is brought to rescind the contract of sale on the ground that it was procured by false representations.

Relies on Fitzhugh v. Davis

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

reversed · Decided 1920-03-08

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently March 1957

9 state decisions

501920193019401950decided

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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Hart, J.

¶1(after stating the facts). The decree was wrong for two reasons. In the first place, where a party desires to rescind his contract for the purchase of land on the ground of fraud, he must act promptly after discovering the facts. The plaintiff, Harris, received a deed from Fleming in the early part of January, 1918, and immediately moved on the farm. A part of the consideration for the purchase was a house and lot in Malvern, Arkansas, which Harris conveyed to Fleming. Fleming went into possession of the house and lot. Harris did not bring this suit until the 3d day of November, 1918. This, under the circumstances just recounted, was an unreasonable time. During all this time, Harris treated the land as his own and made no complaint to Fleming on the ground that there was a misrepresentation as to the twenty acres of timber land. Harris could not wait to experiment and see whether the transaction might not after all turn out well. Acquiescence, under the circumstances of this case, is fatal to his right of recovery, if any before subsisted. It was his duty to have moved in a reasonable time, and, not having done so, he could not speculate for a whole crop season upon whether or not his purchase might turn out well, and then, when he believed that it did not, come into a. court of equity ahd claim a rescission of the contract. Fitzhugh v. Davis, Admx., 46 Ark. 337.

¶2In the next place, a careful consideration of the whole record leads us to the conclusion that Fleming did not intend to deceive Harris as to the boundary line of the farm. It is true Harris testified that the principal inducement to buy the farm was the fact that he got the twenty acres of timber land in question, but he is contradicted in this respect by Fleming and by all the circumstances in the case. We think a preponderance of the evidence shows that he was buying the eighty-acre farm for $1,600. There were a house and barn on the premises in a good state of repair worth $1,100. According to Harris ’ testimony there were thirty acres of land in cultivation. According to the testimony of other witnesses there were nearly fifty acres in cultivation. Harris does not attempt to place any value on the timber. The testimony of the other witnesses is that the twenty acres were wet and boggy and that but little of the twenty acres was susceptible of cultivation. Hence it will be seen that the main object of Harris was to buy the eighty-acre farm. He got all the land which his deed called for, and we are of the opinion that under the circumstances the representations made by Fleming as to the boundary line were but a mere expression of an opinion by him as to where his boundary line extended and that they were not representations that the boundary line as a matter of fact did extend to the creek.

¶3It follows that the decree will be reversed, and the cause remanded with directions to dismiss the complaint of the plaintiff for want of equity.

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