Thomas v. Wiggers

Citations

• 41 Ill. 470

Syllabus

<p>1. Construction oe written contracts—by what means the intention of the parties may be ascertained. In giving a construction to a written contract, it is always proper, when the writing is not specific, to ascertain such extrinsic facts as the parties had in view at the time the contract was made, in order to ascertain their true meaning.</p> <p>2. The rule that parol testimony is not admissible to add to or vary the terms of a written instrument, is not violated by the admission of parol testimony to show the condition of the property which is the subject of the contract, with a view to arrive at the true intent of the parties in the terms used by them.</p> <p>3. So, where the owner of a building, who occupied a part of it, and in which he had a steam engine in use, leased another part of the building to a party for a purpose that required the use of steam, the lease providing that the lessee should have a certain portion of the building, “together with one-half of the steam power produced by the then present therein located steam engine, or one of equal capacity, to be kept in motion by the lessor ten hours each day,” it was held, in an action by the tenant against his landlord, to recover damages for the destruction by the latter of the pipe by means of which the former obtained his supply of steam from the engine, that it was competent for the plaintiff to prove that he had occupied the premises mentioned in the lease for more than a year immediately preceding the execution thereof, under other leases from the defendant, oral and written, and had used the steam in a certain manner which was supplied to him by means of the pipe which the defendant had destroyed.</p> <p>4. While it is true, the written contract should govern, still as the intention of the parties as to what facilities and appurtenances were to be secured to the tenant in carrying on his business, must be reached, that could be done in no better way than by showing a previous holding by the tena