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88 Ark. 383

Main v. Oliver

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided December 14, 1908

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1908-12-14

H. Humphreys, Chancellor; One who signs a contract must stand by the words of -that contract. If he will not read what he signs, he alone is responsible for his omission.- 32 Ark. 327; 70 Ark. 515; 71 Ark. 188; 91 U. S. 50; 35 Ark. 559. Not only so, but he must show that he was guilty of no laches in signing before he can be relieved from this contract. 56 N. Y. 137; 66 Me. 109.

Relies on Graham v. Remmel · Barr Cash & Package Carrier Co. v. Brooks-Ozan Mercantile Co. · Barton-Parker Manufacturing Co. v. Taylor

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

affirmed · Decided 1908-12-14

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently October 1957

8 state decisions

50190819101920193019401950decided

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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McCulloci-i, J.

¶1Appellant sued appellee at law to recover the price of a lot of jewelry shipped to the latter by the former under a written contract of sale. Appellee answered, stating in substance that appellant’s agent had agreed with him to ship the jewelry for sale on commission, that he signed the written contract of sale at his place of business in Fayetteville, Arkansas, upon an express agreement with appellant’s agent that the latter would change the form and substance of the writing before it was mailed to appellant at his place -of business in Chicago, Illinois, so as to make it conform to their verbal agreement for a shipment for sale on commission, but that said agent had wrongfully and fraudulently sent the written contract to appellant without changing it. He also alleged that as soon as he discovered that fact he repudiated the written contract and returned the goods to appellant without opening the packages containing same.

¶2The case was, by agreement of parties, transferred to the chancery court, where it was heard on the evidence, and a decree was rendered dismssing the complaint for want of equity. The statements of the answer are fully sustained by the evidence, and the only question for our determination is whether or not these facts will defeat a recovery on the written contract of sale.

¶3The effort of appellee is not to vary or contradict the terms of a written contract by parol evidence, but it is to show by such evidence that no written contract was entered into of the kind set forth by appellant as the basis of his action. The distinction is pointed out by the court in the following cases: Graham v. Remmel, 76 Ark. 140; Barton-Parker Mfg. Co. v. Taylor, 78 Ark. 586; Barr Cash & Package Co. v. Brooks-Ozan Merc. Co., 82 Ark. 219.

¶4The design of appellee’s testimony was not to establish a contemporaneous or antecedent verbal contract, but to show that certain changes were to be made in the writing in order for it to evidence the real agreement of the parties, before it should be delivered as his contract. He did not deny that he signed the paper, nor that he was aware of its contents, but he claimed it was to be altered before its delivery to appellant, the other contracting party.

¶5In Barton-Parker Mfg. Co. v. Taylor, supra, we said: “The purpose of the evidence was not to vary or contradict the terms of the contract, but to identify the particular contract which defendant in fact executed. The paper signed by the defendant did not in fact become his contract until the salesman attached the slip containing the clause as agreed upon between them, and it was competent for him to prove this by parol testimony.”

¶6So in the present case the paper signed by appellee was not to become his contract until the changes should be made which were agreed to be made before delivery.

¶7Decree affirmed.

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