Hoffa v. Hoffa

Citations

• 38 Pa. Super. 356
• 1909 Pa. Super. LEXIS 142

Syllabus

<p>Contract — Agreement with one person to pay money to another — Declarrations against interest.</p> <p>1. If one pay money to another for the use of a third person, or having money belonging to another, agree with the other to pay it, to a third, action lies by the person beneficially interested. But where the contract is for the benefit of the contracting party, and the third person is a stranger to the contract and consideration, the action must be by the promisee.</p> <p>2. One brother conveyed to another a farm for the consideration of $1.00 named in the deed. The farm was in fact worth $3,000. At the time of the acknowledgment before a justice of the peace, the grantee said, “That other paper we will make, too, before long.” Subsequently the grantee stated to four different persons on as many different occasions that he had agreed with his brother when he received the farm to pay to another brother and sister $1,000 each. Held, (1) that the brother and sister could maintain a suit against the grantee’s administrator for the money which the grantee had promised his brother to pay them; (2) that the declarations of the grantee were admissible to establish the grantee’s obligation to pay the money; and (3) that the case was for the jury, and that a verdict and judgment for plaintiff should be sustained.</p>