Swayne v. Swayne

Citations

• 19 Pa. Super. 160
• 1902 Pa. Super. LEXIS 52

Syllabus

<p>Contract — Parol contract to convey real estate — Measure of damages.</p> <p>In an action to recover damages for the breach of a parol contract under which the defendant paid the entire purchase money of real estate and agreed to convey the same to plaintiff upon the repayment of the purchase money, the measure of damages is not the difference between the actual value of the land and the amount which the defendant paid therefor, but only the actual damages sustained by virtue of the breach.</p> <p>The statute of frauds, although preventing specific performance of a parol contract to convey land, does not prevent an action for damages for a breach of the contract. To allow a recovery for the value of the land would be equivalent to specific performance, and therefore the value of the land cannot be shown in order to determine the measure of damages.</p> <p>Evidence — Competency of witness — Attorney at law — Privilege.</p> <p>In an action to recover damages for the breach of a parol contract, an attorney at law who was attorney for the defendant, and the husband of the plaintiff, in another transaction which had no reference whatever to the case on trial, may be called as a witness to contradict the testimony of the husband of the plaintiff as to a conversation which took place between him and defendant. In such a case the attorney is not the attorney for the plaintiff, and even if he were, he is not thereby excluded from testifying under the circumstances.</p> <p>Where several persons employ the same attorney in the same business, communications made by them in relation to such business, while privileged as to their common adversary, are not privileged inter sese.</p>