Arrott St.-P. Mills Co. v. Way Mfg. Co.

Citations

• 143 Pa. 435
• 22 A. 699
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 935

Syllabus

<p>(а) The owner of a factory building leased by parol a portion thereof to a partnership, and died, after having conveyed the entire property to a corporation, subject to subsisting leases. The corporation subsequently leased, also by parol, other portions to partnerships composed substantially of the same members as the original lessees, each firm succeeding to the liabilities of its predecessor in the lettings.</p> <p>(b) The first holdings continued after the subsequent ones were acquired, the additional lettings being made upon the same terms as to the period of duration as the original; and after each additional letting bills were rendered monthly to the lessees, for the aggregate rentals due upon all the holdings, as if upon a single letting of the whole building:</p> <p>1. In assumpsit by the corporation for a balance of rentals unpaid, the interest of the original lessor in the first letting was one of the things or contracts in action ; and such lessor being dead, one of the defendant lessees, who made the first contract with him, was incompetent to testify to the terms of that contract: § 5, (e), act of May 23, 1887, P. L. 158.*</p> <p>2. Both parties claimed that such contract was made, and the only question was as to what were its terms. In such case, it was not error to exclude offers of the defendants to prove the custom of the original lessor in renting the building, his declarations as to his custom, or the usage of the plaintiff corporation as to renting in like cases after renting to the defendants.</p>