Kenner v. Harding

Citations

• 85 Ill. 264

Syllabus

<p>1. Warranty on sale of personal property—what constitutes. If the ' vendor of a chattel assumes to assert a fact of which the buyer is ignorant, and upon which he relies, it will amount to a warranty; but if the vendor merely states an opinion or judgment upon a matter of which he has no special knowledge, and on which the buyer may be expected, also, to have an opinion and to exercise a judgment, there will be no warranty.</p> <p>2. Same—when extended to visible defects. The general rule, that a warranty does not protect against defects that are plain and obvious to the senses of the purchaser, and which require no skill to detect, has no appli-. cation to a case where the vendor uses art to conceal, and does conceal, such defects.</p> <p>3. Where the vendor of a mare and a mule had them both in a single stall, where defects were not easily discoverable when the buyer called to examine them, and, when about to examine, remarked that the mule had kicked on a prior occasion, and assured the buyer that the mule was sound, and the latter, being inexperienced, made the purchase relying on the assurance given, it was held, that this was a warranty of soundness, which extended to visible defects.</p> <p>4. Same—of soundness, construed. A warranty of soundness in a horse or mule sold amounts to a warranty against any defects which render it not capable of immediate use put to any fair work the owner may choose. If, at the time of the sale, the animal has any disease, which either diminishes its actual usefulness, so as to make it less capable of work of any description, or which, in its ordinary progress, will diminish its natural usefulness, it is unsound.</p> <p>5. Fraud—representations and conspiracy to defrcmd. The general rule, that the mere statements of the vendor as to the value of land, or what he has been offered for it by others, are not, of themselves, evidence of legal fraud to justify a recovery against him by the purchaser, has no application where the pu