White v. Smith et al.

• Decision Date: 01 January 1859
• Citation: 33 Pa. 186
• Parties: White versus Smith et al.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

33 Pa. 186

White versus Smith et al.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

ERROR to the Common Pleas of Warren county.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

W. D. Brown, for the plaintiff in error.

S. D. Wetmore, for the defendants in error.

The opinion of the court was delivered by THOMPSON, J.

The first assignment of error in this case is to the negative answer of the court to the plaintiff's third point, and their affirmative answer to the defendants' fourth. These answers regard the construction to be given to the contract on which suit was brought. It was a joint and several instrument.

We have no doubt whatever but that the contract in question was an undertaking or guaranty, by Smith and Robinson, for the faithful performance by the former of his agreement with the plaintiff, with the superaddition of a stipulation for a release of liability under certain restrictions, in case of Smith's death during the continuance of the lease. The want of proper punctuation is, if objectionable at all, no more allowable in vitiating the contract, or in destroying its effect, than bad grammar, the rule against which is a maxim of the law. To allow the contractor to punctuate in mitiori sensu of his own words, would be something of a novelty. I think no case can be found, upon which the sense of a contract has depended upon the absence of punctuation marks — words are the most usual evidence of intent, and formed into sentences, are to be taken to express the meaning of the party using them. Punctuation may aid in ascertaining the true reading of a production, but the production may be read and interpreted without such aids. What do the words here mean? And they are to be taken most strongly against the party using them. Read fairly and as they stand, without any effort other than to ascertain all that the contract stipulated for, it is not easy to see anything to justify the construction claimed by the defendants. Indeed, the defendant in error is forced to rest his construction on the unlikely idea that it was meant as a life insurance by the guarantor, Robinson. But it would seem to have wanted a premium to make it an insurance. It is idle to dwell on such a view of the case. It is simply an agreement entered into by Smith and Robinson for the faithful performance by Smith of his contract, and in case Smith should die within the three years, then Robinson to pay up to that time, and deliver the property, as stipulated, to White. That it has been sued upon as joint...