Anderson v. Harper

Citations

• 30 Wash. 378
• 70 P. 965
• 1902 Wash. LEXIS 698

Syllabus

<p>PLEADINGS-AMENDMENT DURING TRIAL.</p> <p>The refusal of the court to permit plaintiffs to amend their complaint during trial does not show abuse of discretion, when the amendment would introduce a new element of damages in addition to those claimed in the complaint.</p> <p>SAME-DISPUTED CONTRACT-EVIDENCE OF SURROUNDINGS.</p> <p>Where the pleadings put in issue the terms of a contract between the parties, evidence of circumstances surrounding the contract is admissible.</p> <p>CONTRACT TO ERECT BUILDING-ACTION FOR BREACH-EVIDENCE.</p> <p>In an action for damages for failure to construct a building on community property according to contract, the wife cannot object to evidence of alterations made under an oral agreement in which she had not joined, since she would be bound by any contract made by her husband for the benefit of the community property.</p> <p>SAME-STRIKING ALLEGATIONS OF REPLY.</p> <p>The striking out of affirmative matter in the reply cannot be urged as error, when there was no testimony on the subject of the stricken matter.</p> <p>SAME-INSTRUCTIONS-EXCEPTIONS.</p> <p>Where the court had charged the jury that “unless the plaintiffs have established to your satisfaction by a preponderance of the evidence that there was a substantial failure on the part of defendant to comply with his contract, your verdict must be for defendant,” an exception thereto which recites that plaintiffs except to “that part of the instructions wherein the judge says that if the defendant has substantially performed his agreement,” etc., was not properly taken, since it attributes to the court language not used by it and which conveys a different meaning than that employed.</p>