Schwear v. Haupt

• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: BLISS
• Citation: Schwear v. Haupt, 49 Mo. 225 (Mo. 1872)
• Decision Date: 31 January 1872
• Parties: A. H. SCHWEAR, Defendant in Error, v. THEODORE HAUPT, Plaintiff in Error.

49 Mo. 225

A. H. SCHWEAR, Defendant in Error,

v.THEODORE HAUPT, Plaintiff in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

January Term, 1872.

Error to First District Court.

Ewing & Smith, with Gale & Hundhausen, for plaintiff in error.

Lay & Belch, for defendant in error.

BLISS, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiff charges fraud and mistake in the execution of a certain title bond given the defendant in this: the defendant was his step-son, he having no children, and he made an arrangement with said step-son to support and maintain him during the rest of his life, in consideration of which he was to give him a farm worth $4,000 for $2,500, for which the defendant was to give his note for $2,000, and cancel a claim of $500 due him for labor. They proceeded to a magistrate to have the agreement reduced to writing, where only a bond for a deed was drawn for the consideration of $2,500, and the note for $2,000 was executed. The plaintiff charges that he was ignorant of the English language and of our modes of doing business, and supposed the writing embraced the whole agreement, and that the agreement to support him was left out; that the defendant repudiated that part of the understanding, and refused to maintain him, and he asks that the bond be canceled.

The Circuit Court found the allegations to be true, and gave the plaintiff judgment, which was affirmed in the District Court, and the case comes here under the provisions of the act of February 15, 1871. (Sess. Acts 1871, p. 161.)

There is no doubt as to the character of the understanding between the parties, and that the plaintiff has set it out correctly. It was talked over before the magistrate, and the defendant admitted it to sundry persons. One witness...