Cofield v. Griffin
| Decision Date | 14 October 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 22,22 |
| Citation | 238 N.C. 377,78 S.E.2d 131,40 A.L.R.2d 966 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | , 40 A.L.R.2d 966 COFIELD et al. v. GRIFFIN et ux. |
W. C. Morse, Jr., Elizabeth City, and Weldon A. Hollowell, Edenton, for plaintiffs, appellees.
J. N. Pruden, Edenton, and LeRoy & Goodwin, Elizabeth City, for defendants, appellants.
The only assignments of error requiring elaboration are those which challenge the sufficiency of the evidence of the plaintiffs to carry the case to the jury and support the verdict on the issue of fraud.
The essential elements of fraud are these: (1) That defendant made a representation relating to some material past or existing fact; (2) that the representation was false; (3) that when he made it, defendant knew that the representation was false, or made it recklessly, without any knowledge of its truth and as a positive assertion; (4) that defendant made the representation with intention that it should be acted upon by plaintiff; (5) that plaintiff reasonably relied upon the representation, and acted upon it; and (6) that plaintiff thereby suffered injury. Parker v. White, 235 N.C. 680, 71 S.E.2d 122; Foster v. Snead, 235 N.C. 338, 69 S.E.2d 604; Vail v. Vail, 233 N.C. 109, 63 S.E.2d 202. A false representation is material when it deceives a person and induces him to act. Starnes v. Raleigh, C. & S. R. Co., 170 N.C. 222, 87 S.E. 43; White Sewing Machine Co. v. Bullock, 161 N.C. 1, 76 S.E. 634.
When the evidence of the plaintiffs is interpreted in the light favorable to them, it makes out this case:
1. The male defendant desired to acquire as many of the outstanding interests in the Chowan County land as possible on the basis of a total outlay not to exceed $600 for the entire property. He sought out the plaintiffs at their homes in Virginia, and offered them $300 for their shares in the land. He represented to the plaintiffs that he had just talked to Mrs. Agnes Heath Cofield and Mrs. Martha C. Forehand at Elizabeth City concerning his desire to acquire the entire property for $600, and that Mrs. Agnes Heath Cofield and Mrs. Martha C. Forehand would sell him their interests in the property for their proportionate part of that sum as soon as he obtained a deed from the plaintiffs for their shares.
2. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Agnes Heath Cofield and Mrs. Martha C. Forehand, acting through the instrumentality of an agent, had just informed the male defendant that they would not sell him their interests in the land at all. Consequently, his representation to the plaintiffs as to what Mrs. Agnes Heath Cofield and Mrs. Martha C. Forehand would do was not only false, but was known to him to be false at the time he made it.
3. The male defendant made the representation as to what Mrs. Agnes Heath Cofield and Mrs. Martha C. Forehand would do to the plaintiffs with intent that the plaintiffs should believe it and be induced by it to sell their interests in the land to him for $300.
4. The plaintiffs accepted the representation of the male defendant as truth without making any inquiry of Mrs. Agnes Heath Cofield and Mrs. Martha C. Forehand, and were induced by it to execute the deed of January 1, 1952, for a consideration of $300, which was less than the market value of their interests in the land.
5. Shortly thereafter the plaintiffs discovered the falsity of the representation which had been made to them by the male defendant. They forthwith tendered to defendants the check for $300 issued to them by the male defendant in payment of the consideration for their deed, and demanded a rescission of the conveyance. The defendants refused the tender and demand, and the plaintiffs brought this action against them.
The defendants insist initially that the evidence of the plaintiffs is insufficient to establish fraud on the part of the male defendant because it fails to show that he misrepresented any past or existing fact to them. The defendants take the position on this aspect of the litigation that the statement of the male defendant that Mrs. Agnes Heath Cofield and Mrs. Martha C. Forehand would sell him their interests in the land for their proportionate part of $600 as soon as he obtained a deed from the plaintiffs for their shares constituted at most an expression of an erroneous opinion on his part as to what the future conduct of Mrs. Agnes Heath Cofield and Mrs. Martha C. Forehand would be in respect to the particular matter under discussion. Their brief sums up their arguments on this score in this succinct manner:
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