Phillips v. Craft

Citations

• 139 Pa. 125
• 21 A. 205
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 964

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>(а) The plaintiff, having purchased certain land in West Virginia from one Williams, refused to accept the title until the land was released from the lien of a certain deed of trust in favor of the defendant, given to secure six promissory notes, and covering that and other real estate.</p> <p>(б) Williams then went to the defendant, told him that the land in question had been sold, and asked him to sign a release which recited a conveyance of it to the plaintiff on a prior date. The defendant objected to signing the release, because it was general in its terms and he did not then own two of said notes.</p> <p>(c) Assured by Williams that the plaintiff and his attorneys knew of the ownership of those two notes, and believing that the conveyance to the plaintiff had been made, the defendant signed the release. Williams then brought it to the plaintiff who accepted the title. The land was afterward sold under the trust deed for the payment of said two notes :</p> <p>1. Negligence, to be actionable, must be at least the breach of a legal duty; and, as the defendant was under no duty of diligence toward the plaintiff, having assumed no contract or other relation with him, the execution of a release apparently covering all six of the notes was not such negligence, especially after the distinct notice to Williams that it would not so operate.</p>