Self v. King

Citations

• 28 Tex. 552

Syllabus

<p>To a suit upon an instrument in the form of a “due-bill” for one hundred sheep, particularly described, the defendant answered, that it was understood and verbally agreed between him and the plaintiff, at the time of the making of the instrument, that the sheep should not be delivered until the then ensuing spring of 1861, previous to which the suit was instituted: Meld, that an exception to the answer was properly sustained, on the ground that it proposed to vary the terms of the written contract by proof of a contemporaneous parol agreement.</p> <p>When parties have reduced their contract to writing, so as to express its terms and conditions without uncertainty as to its subj ect and nature, the writing is presumed to contain the whole of the agreement; and hence the rule, that contemporaneous parol evidence is not admissible to contradict or vary the terms of a valid written contract.</p> <p>When a written contract for the delivery of cumbrous property fixes no specific time for such delivery, it is the settled construction that the property is to be delivered within a reasonable time; and what is a reasonable time, though often a mixed question of law and fact, is generally a question of law. (Paschal’s Dig., Note 284, p. 144.)</p> <p>And it is not competent to show that by a verbal agreement, made simultaneously with such a written contract, the parties fixed a certain time for the delivery of the property. Such parol evidence would contradict the written contract, and should not be received.</p> <p>It is not questioned that, after such a contract is reduced to writing, the. parties may change it by a verbal agreement based upon a sufficient consideration, so as to defer the time of performance and the like. A subsequent agreement so made would recognize the original contract as expressed in writing, and would not be subject to the objection that it sought to contradict it.</p> <p>But without alleging fraud or mistake, it is not permissible to show by parol