Dick v. Ireland

Citations

• 130 Pa. 299
• 18 A. 735
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 1186

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>1. A special manuscript addition to a printed form used in drawing up a contract, is entitled to especial weight in construing the contract, as it is presumed to have been separately and particularly considered by the parties, and to express their exact agreement on the subject of it.</p> <p>(a) In an agreement for the manufacture, under a license, of a patented article, the licensees reserved the right at any time to cancel the contract by giving thirty days’ notice in writing to the owner of the patent, and paying all dues for royalties under the license.</p> <p>(6) The licensees wrote to the owners of the patent: “We wish to cancel our license, .... as per contract. You will please return our bond to us, and we will return the license to you by return mail.” They paid royalties for the thirty days succeeding the date of their letter, but thereafter ceased to manufacture under the patent.</p> <p>2. This letter was not merely the expression of a wish to cancel and a willingness to return the license on receipt of the bond, but was an absolute and complete rescission of the contract, the courteous phrases used importing nothing in the nature of a request for the consent of the other party.</p> <p>3. An agreement that, upon exercising an option to cancel a license for the manufacture of patented drilling jars, the licensee shall “ stop making the jars thereafter,” plainly refers to the jars covered by the licensor’s patent, and does not require the licensee to refrain from making, other jars.</p> <p>I. Upon the uncorroborated testimony of a single interested witness, opposed to the sworn answer of the defendants, equity will not reform a written agreement in a material particular, especially when such testimony is lacking in precision of language, and the story of the witness is inherently improbable.</p> <p>5. When a contract requires that one of the parties shall keep books which he shall submit, when called upon, to the inspection of th