John A. Tollman Co. v. Bowerman

Citations

• 5 S.D. 197
• 58 N.W. 568
• 1894 S.D. LEXIS 49

Syllabus

<p>1. Generally, the allowance or disallowance of leading questions is in the discretion of the court, and it is only when such questions go very directly to the substance of the matter in controversy, and give the examining party . an improper advantage, that their allowance will be held reversible error.</p> <p>2. When parties agree in advance as to what shall constitute satisfactory and final proof of a fact, they take such question out from under the ordinary rules of evidence, and the fact mav be established in the manner provided for in the agreement.</p> <p>3. A judgment will not be reversed in this court on account of the admission of improper evidence, when it fully appears that without such evidence the verdict of the jury or the findings of the court must have been the same.</p> <p>4. A definite and unambiguous promise contained in a written obligation, that the makers shall do a specified thing, will not be ignored because such promise is outside of, or apparently inconsistent with, the provisions of a prior agreement made by another party, which such first-mentioned obligation was based upon and generally made to secure. Therefore where' respondent, the T. Co., employed W. to sell goods as a traveling salesman, making with him “in the latter part of October, 1891,” a written contract, which provided that he should pay his own expenses, and subsequently, on the 2nd day of November, defendants gave the T. Co. a written obligation guarantying the payment to the T. Co. of “all moneys which they may from time to time advance to said” W., held, that the moneys so advanced were secured by said obligation, although the prior agreement with W. did not apparently contemplate the advancement to him of any moneys by the T? Co.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.</p>