Douglass v. Littler

Citations

• 58 Ill. 342

Syllabus

<p>1. TP'B.Kan—falserepresentations—matters of opinion. Ordinarily, matters of opinion between parties dealing upon equal terms, though falsely stated, are not relieved against in equity.</p> <p>3. In order to entitle a party to relief for any misrepresentation, it must appear that he relied upon it.</p> <p>3. Upon bill filed to set aside a deed executed by the complainant to the defendant, upon the alleged ground of fraud and misrepresentation in its procurement, it appeared the defendant, having purchased a tax title to the land, applied to the complainant, who owned the original patent title, for a quit claim deed, representing to the complainant that his tax title was good, and the complainant’s title worthless. The evidence showed that the defendant at the time believed these representations to be true. It resulted, however, that the tax title was in fact utterly worthless: Held, the representation by the defendant as to the validity of his tax title, was to be regarded as a mere expression of opinion, and as the parties dealt upon equal terms, there being no special confidence or relation existing between them, the defendant was not guilty of a fraud for which the deed could be avoided, merely because of the expression of such opinion, which the facts did not justify, so long as he made no false statement as to what those facts were.</p> <p>4. Moreover, it appeared the complainant had abandoned his land long previous to the application of the defendant for a deed, upon information obtained from other sources that it had been sold for taxes, and that his title was gone, so that he could not be regarded as having relied upon the representations of the defendant, but rather upon a pre-existing belief that he had lost his title by means of the tax sales; and, not relying upon the representations of the defendant, he could not be considered as having been defrauded by them.</p> <p>5. Conveying AH' intebest—not known to exist. A party can hardly be said to part with