George v. Kurdy

Citations

• 92 Wash. 277
• 158 P. 965

Syllabus

<p>Fraud — Misrepresentations—Reliance Upon — Vendor and Purchaser — Evidence—Sufficiency. In an action for fraud, a purchaser, although making a personal investigation, may rely on the vendor’s representations that 100 acres of a 320-acre tract were susceptible of cultivation, where, owing to the topography of the tracts, its irregular shape, and the brush upon it, the falsity of the representations could not be ascertained without a scientific survey, and there was no other way to form a reasonably accurate judgment on the subject; and it is immaterial that the vendor did not know the falsity of the statement, where the statement was made as a fact and not as a matter of opinion.</p> <p>Trial — Instructions—Issues and Instructions — Requests. In an action for fraud in selling land through misrepresenting the number of acres susceptible to cultivation, the number of acres under cultivation, and the condition and character of a creek crossing the premises, in which there was evidence to go to the jury as to the first matter, a requested instruction withdrawing all three matters from the jury is properly refused, and error cannot be assigned on the failure to withdraw from the jury the consideration of the second matter, in the absence of a request therefor.</p> <p>Appeal — Harmless Error-Instructions. It is not error to refuse requested instructions amplifying a statement of law that is sufficiently covered in the general charge.</p>