Sims v. Greenfield & N. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 12 May 1903
• Citation: 74 S.W. 421,102 Mo. App. 29
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Parties: SIMS v. GREENFIELD & N. R. CO. et al.

74 S.W. 421

102 Mo. App. 29

SIMS v. GREENFIELD & N. R. CO. et al.

Court of Appeals at St. Louis, Missouri.

May 12, 1903.

CONTRACT—FAILURE OF CONSIDERATION—RECOVERY OF AMOUNT PAID— PAROL EVIDENCE.

1. Plaintiff agreed to pay $100 to the defendant railroad company in consideration that it would extend its line to his town, and have it in running order on a certain date. The road was built and in running order before said date. Afterwards another railroad bought the defendant company outright, and later the purchasing road became a competitor of a third railroad company for certain business. Afterwards the third railroad company absorbed the purchasing road by a long-time lease, and competition ceased, and no more trains were run over the line of the defendant company. Held, that plaintiff could not recover his $100.

2. So long as a written contract stands unassailed for fraud or mistake, it is conclusive on both parties, and parol evidence is inadmissible to vary, contradict, add to, or subtract from its terms.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Stone County; Geo. W. Thornberry, Judge.

Action by Arch L. Sims against the Greenfield & Northern Railroad Company and others. Judgment for defendants. Plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Edward J. White, for appellant. Carr McNatt, for respondents.

BLAND, P. J.

The suit grew out of what plaintiff alleges to be a violation of the following contract: "Aurora, Mo., April 11th, 1892. For and in Consideration of the Greenfield and Northern Railroad Company building, extending and completing its said railroad from Mt. Vernon, in Lawrence county, Mo., to the city of Aurora, in said county and state, and erecting a depot at said last named city and running their trains on regular schedule for the transportation of freight and passengers on or before the first day of October, 1892, I, the undersigned, agree to pay to said Greenfield and Northern Railroad Company, its successor or assigns, the sum of one hundred dollars ($100) as follows, to-wit: One third of said sum when said road is completed, one-third in three months and balance in six months from date of said completion, with interest from date of said completion, at the rate of six per cent. per annum until paid. But in case said company, its successor or assigns, shall fail to complete said road within the time above prescribed, then this obligation shall be void. Payable at any bank in Aurora, Mo. A. L. Sims."

The evidence is that citizens of the city of Aurora, including plaintiff, subscribed $30,000 to the Greenfield & Northern Railroad Company as an inducement for that company to extend its road to the city of Aurora, and that plaintiff, and most, if not all, of the other subscribers, paid the amount by each subscribed, and the road was built into Aurora within the time...