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22 Minn. 429

Weide v. Porter

Supreme Court of Minnesota

Decided March 20, 1876

Supreme Court of Minnesota · decided 1876-03-20

The complaint alleges the sale of a pair of horses by defendant to Albert Scheffer, with warranty that they were good roadsters, good and true workers in harness, and not balky; a breach of the warranty, and damages resulting therefrom to Scheffer, and an assignment of the cause of action from Scheffer to the plaintiff. The answer puts in issue the sale, the warranty, and the assignment.

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently November 1941

4 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1876-03-20

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Cornell, J.

¶1This case comes before us upon exceptions to the ruling of the court upon the admissibility of certain testimony offered under the issues made by the pleadings. The real question presented is whether, upon an issue raised by a denial of the execution of a contract of sale and warranty, alleged to have been made between defendant and one Scheffer, it was competent to prove that such contract was made by the duly authorized agent of Scheffer; in other words, when the contract of the principal, which constitutes the foundation of the cause of action, is made through the intervention of an agent, is it necessary, in pleading it, to aver that fact and the authority of the agent?

¶2*431Issuable facts alone are required to be stated in a pleading, and those according to their logical and legal effect. In this case the fact traversed by the answer, the proof of which would support the action, was the execution of the particular contract. If it was entered into by the party, its effect was the same, whether done by the principal per■sonally or by his authorized agent. In either case it was ■the contract of the principal. The complaint was sufficient to allow the evidence offered, tending to show that the alleged contract was, in fact, the contract of Scheffer, and the exclusion of such evidence was error, for which a new trial must be granted.

¶3The exclusion of the written assignment from Weide & Ross was also error. This was competent evidence, both for the purpose of corroborating the testimony of Weide, that he was acting as the agent of Scheffer, assignee of Weide & Ross, in making the trade, and also to show that the title to the property given in exchange for the horses was in Scheffer. That it also showed the existence of a trust for the benefit of creditors rendered it none the less competent, because, as against all but the beneficiaries of the trust, such title was absolute, and none but the cestuis que trust could raise any question growing out of an alleged violation of the obligations imposed by' the trust.

¶4Judgment reversed and new trial ordered.

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