Dowd v. Crow

Citations

• 205 Pa. 214
• 54 A. 780
• 1903 Pa. LEXIS 549

Syllabus

<p>Contract — Parol contemporaneous agreement — Parties—Mechanic's lien— Mortgage — Sheriff.</p> <p>Where a trust company agrees to advance money on first mortgage to a contractor for a building operation, but stipulates for a release of liens from subcontractors, and the contractor secures an unconditional release from certain of the subcontractors, one of the subcontractors cannot allege that he was induced to sign the paper by a parol contemporaneous agreement that the paper should not be binding unless all subcontractors signed it, where there is nothing to show that the contractor in securing the paper was acting for the trust company, or that he had been authorized by it to say anything at all to the subcontractor, but all the evidence tends to show that the contractor was acting for himself.</p> <p>In such a case where the subcontractor has placed the paper in the hands of the contractor, and subsequently the sheriff in reliance upon the paper makes a distribution of the proceeds of sheriff’s sale, the subcontractor cannot complain, but is bound by the rule that “ where one of two innocent persons is to suffer from the tortious act of the third, he who gave the aggressor the means of doing the wrong must alone bear the' consequences of the act.”</p> <p>Sheriff- — Trespass—Distribution of proceeds of sheriff s sale.</p> <p>In an action of trespass against the sheriff for a wrongful distribution of the proceeds of a sheriff’s sale, the burden is upon the plaintiff to make out his case by showing, not only that he had a lien against the property sold, but that he had a right to participate in the proceeds, and that the sheriff had paid the money to others who were not entitled to receive it.</p> <p>A person charged with wrongdoing is not called upon to prove anything until his adversary charging the tort has first proved it.</p>