Harstad v. Olson

Citations

• 57 Wash. 264
• 106 P. 741
• 1910 Wash. LEXIS 737

Syllabus

<p>Actions — Splitting Causes — Severable Contracts. A party may sue on a severable contract for all items due when suit is brought, and there is no splitting of causes of action.</p> <p>Contracts — Entire or Severable — Payments. A contract to clear five acres of land is severable, where the owner agreed to pay for the three first acres $140 per acre, $100 payable when each acre is completed, $75 when the fourth was completed, and balance when all was completed.</p> <p>Judgments — Bar—Contracts—Partial Performance — Recovery on Severable Contract. Where a contract for clearing land is severable, an action for the first installment, falling due on completing the first acre, is not a bar to a recovery for the balance.</p> <p>Evidence — Parol to Vary Writing. Evidence to show that a contract had been partly performed, and part payment made before jt was reduced to writing, is not inadmissible as varying by parol the terms of a written agreement.</p> <p>Abatement and Revival — Another Action Pending — Several Contracts. In an action to recover on a severable contract for clearing land, recovery cannot be had for the reasonable value of the' entire work upon defendants’ breach of the contract and refusal to allow plaintiff to perform, where plaintiff had pending another action to recover the first installment due on completing the first acre, or had been paid therefor.</p>