Duffy v. Blake

Citations

• 80 Wash. 643
• 141 P. 1149
• 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1351

Syllabus

<p>Fraud—Misrepresentations—Action for Damages — Evidence— Question for Jury. Whether the defendant was guilty of fraud in inducing a sale of a one-half interest in a second-hand furniture business is a question for the jury, where the defendant represented the stock as worth $11,413, that the business had made a profit of $4,600 the preceding year, and that a note given by plaintiff as balance of the purchase price could be paid from the profits, when in fact the stock was worth less than $5,000, the profits were less than $2,000, and no profits resulted after the giving of the note, the plaintiff testifying that he was ignorant concerning goods of the character purchased, the cost thereof or the selling price, but that he relied upon an inventory made by the defendant and upon representations ma'de by him and the broker who handled the sale, the latter being an intimate acquaintance of some years, and it appeared that had plaintiff examined the books he would have been unable to determine what the stock was worth or what the profits had been.</p>