Conlan v. Spokane Hardware Co.

Citations

• 117 Wash. 378
• 201 P. 26
• 1921 Wash. LEXIS 1049

Syllabus

<p>Witnesses (44) — Competency—Transaction With Person Since Deceased — Corporation as Party. Under Rem. Code, § 1211, excluding evidence by a party in interest of transactions had with a deceased person, where the personal representative of the latter sues or defends, an officer and stockholder of a corporation holding as lessee of the deceased cannot testify to an agreement whereby the deceased agreed to accept a lesser sum than that provided in the written lease as rental.</p> <p>Landlord and Tenant (12-1, 115) — Lease—Modification—Evidence — Sufficiency. A modification of the rental charge under a written lease is sufficiently shown by evidence that the lessee would have ceased to do business as a going concern and been forced into insolvency if the rent had not been reduced, resulting in the loss of defendant as a tenant, of which facts the landlord had knowledge; and that payments were made for a smaller rental by cheeks indorsed “rent paid in full' to date,” which werel accepted by the landlord without question until a disagreement arose between the parties over the terms, of a renewal of the lease.</p> <p>Accord and Satisfaction (4) — Landlord and Tenant (102)— Release of Liabilities — Reduction in Rental — Consideration — Mutual Promises. An agreement to reduce the rent is supported by a valid consideration where a written contract of lease is modified by the substitution of an oral agreement for a lesser rental, and there were mutual promises made by one to pay, and by the other to accept, a lesser sum for the purpose of continuing the relation, which would otherwise be abrogated by reason of the inability of the lessee to pay the rental as originally agreed.</p> <p>Frauds, Statute of (51) — Operation—Contracts Performed. An oral contract modifying the terms of a written lease, whose term extends longer than one year, cannot be repudiated by either party after it has become an executed contract by performance.</p>