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8 Va. 217

Calvert v. Bowdoin

Court of Appeals of Virginia

Decided June 15, 1791

Court of Appeals of Virginia · decided 1791-06-15

<p>A. furnishes money to B. to purchase a tract of land for A. B. and C. If B. fails to make the purchase, it is a breach of the contract, to be redressed by a suit upon the contract; and the right of action accrues from the failure to purchase.</p> <p>If the act of limitations be pleaded, the jury ought to find that the defendant assumed within five years next before the suit was commenced; or the whole issue is not found, and a new trial will be awarded.</p> <p>If the evidence differs from the statement in the declaration, judgment of nonsuit will be given by the court of error; and the cause will not be sent back to the court below with a direction to call the plaintiff, or to instruct the jury that the evidence does not support the declaration.</p>

Decided 1791-06-15

Pendleton, President,

¶1delivered the resolution of the . ,, court as lollows :

¶2It is manifest, from the evidence in the record, that the act of limitations had barred the action before the suit was commenced ; for, if the time embraced in the suspending acts be stricken out, there will still be more than five years between the date of the breach, and thvat of the writ. The verdict only finds that the defendant assumed in manner and form as the plaintiff has declared, and not that he assumed within five years next before the suit was commenced, which was the true point in issue. The whole issue therefore has not been found ; and consequently there must have been a new trial, if the cause had depended upon that point.

¶3But the court is of opinion, that a new trial ought not, under the circumstances, to be awarded in order to supply the deficiency in the verdict. For the evidence does not support either of the counts in the declaration, as the sums, the sort of money, and the use to which it was to be applied, contained in the receipt, differ from the statement made in the declaration ; and therefore it is plain, that such evidence never can entitle the plaintiff to a verdict upon this declaration; and, as it is not pretended that he has any other, it would be a work of supererrogation to send.it back again, in order to have the plaintiff called, or the jury instructed that the evidence does not support the declaration.

¶4The judgment therefore is to be reversed, and judgment of nonsuit entered.

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