Wilder v. Beede

Citations

• 119 Cal. 646
• 51 P. 1083
• 1898 Cal. LEXIS 690

Syllabus

<p>Action fob Deceit—Procurement of Note by Fraud—Agreement as to Use of Piano—Sufficiency of Complaint—Rescission.—In an action for deceit, a complaint alleging, in substance, that defendant, through his agent, obtained permission to place a piano of latest pattern in plaintiff’s house for exhibition to intending purchasers of such instrument, with an agreement that plaintiff might have the use of it for a year, with privilege of purchasing the same if desired, and obtained her signature to a note for four hundred dollars, payable in one year, with interest at ten per cent per annum, under a trick and fraudulent representation that she was signing a receipt for the piano containing the terms of the agreement, and that defendant delivered an old, wornout instrument of no value, whereupon plaintiff offered to return the piano and defendant refused to receive it, and negotiated the note to a bank, which had recovered judgment thereon, which plaintiff was compelled to pay, states a sufficient cause of action for the deceitful obtaining of the note for which plaintiff received no consideration and which was used to her damage, and it is not necessary to show a rescission of a sale, which did not in fact exist.</p> <p>Id.—Fraud of Assumed Agent—Adoption of Acts—Liability of Defend ant.—Where the evidence showed that one assuming to be defendant’s agent obtained plaintiff’s note fraudulently, and that plaintiff was compelled to pay the same, and that defendant, who was a son of the owner of the piano, and had authority from her to sell it for two hundred and twenty-five dollars, before the paper was signed by plaintiff ascertained that a bank would discount plaintiff’s note, and prepared a note payable to himself in the sum of four hundred dollars, which the assumed agent of defendant then fraudulently obtained from plaintiff under the representation that defendant was the owner of the piano, and defendant then immediately discounted it to the bank, and disposed of the pr