Peyton v. . Griffin

BeogdeN, J. The only question presented by the record is whether or not there was sufficient evidence of fraud to be submitted to the jury. The defendants seek to avoid the payment of the notes in controversy upon the ground that the plaintiff Peyton falsely and fraudulently misrepresented boundaries of land in controversy, and pointed out to defendants a false location thereof with intent to cheat and defraud them. The principles of law involved in the case are clear and undisputed. The main difficulty consists in the application of well established principles to the facts disclosed by the record. “The essential elements of actionable fraud or deceit are the representation, its falsity, scienter, deception, and injury. The representation must be definite and specific; it must be materially false; it must be made with knowledge of its falsity or in culpable ignorance of its truth; it must be made with fraudulent intent; it must be reasonably relied on by the other party; and he must be deceived and caused to suffer loss.” Electric Co. v. Morrison, 194 N. C., 316. It is also well established that “if the parties have equal means of information, the rule of caveat emptor applies, and an injured party cannot have redress, if he fail to avail himself of the sources of information which he may readily reach, unless he has been prevented from making proper inquiry, by some artifice or contrivance of the other party.” Walsh v. Hall, 66 N. C., 239; May v. Loomis, 140 N. C., 350, 52 S. E., 728; Tarault v. Seip, 158 N. C., 363, 74 S. E., 3; Furst v. Merritt, 190 N. C., 397, 130 S. E., 40. Furthermore in Tarault v. Seip, 158 N. C., 363, 74 S. E., 3, the Court said: “That he made a mistake is not sufficient. Erroneous statements made by the vendor in the sale of land as to the location of a boundary are not sufficient, standing alone, to impeach the transaction for fraud.” Again in Gatlin v. Harrell, 108 N. C., 485, 13 S. E., 190, the Court considered the question of fraud involved in pointing out the boundaries of land. The Court said: “The- *688 whole of the evidence accepted as true did not in any reasonable view of it prove the alleged fraud and deceit. The proof was that the defendants pointed out to the plaintiff certain corners and line trees and lines of the tract so sold, and that these or some of them were not the true ones; but there is nothing to prove that the defendants knew that they were not the true ones, nor that they fraudulently intended to mislead, deceive and get advantage of the feme plaintiff.” Ramsey v. Wallace, 100 N. C., 75, 6 S. E., 638; Pate v. Blades, 163 N. C., 267, 79 S. E., 608; Pritchard v. Dailey, 168 N. C., 330, 84 S. E., 392; Pridgen v. Long, 177 N. C., 189, 98 S. E., 451; Evans v. Davis, 186 N. C., 42, 118 S. E., 845. The whole subject is discussed in an extensive annotation to the case of Lynch v. Palmer, 33 A. L. R., 842. Applying these principles of law to the case at bar, it appears that the plaintiff was employed by Burton to sell the land the day before he mentioned the beauty of the premises at the meeting of the Kiwanis Club. It also appears from the evidence that Peyton told the defendant Griffin that he had not been on the land prior to the day before he took him to view the premises. It further appears that the defendants were informed that all the plaintiff knew about it was what had been told him by Burton. The plaintiff Peyton made no positive statement or declaration as to whether he knew the boundaries of the land or not. He undertook to point out the boundaries to the defendants when the parties were three-quarters of a mile away. The defendants had from 7 October, when the land was pointed out, until 9 January, when the deeds were delivered, to make a closer inspection of the land if they so desired. They knew that the land did not belong to the plaintiff or to Burton, but that the land^ in contemplation of purchase, was the Roberts land and the Sumner land. The owners of the land were therefore plainly identified, and the fact that the plaintiff had no personal knowledge of the boundaries plainly disclosed. Furthermore in January deeds, apparently containing a proper description of the land, were executed and delivered by the owners to the defendant. All information therefore concerning the proper boundaries was then presently available. After reviewing the evidence, with the liberality which the law requires, we are constrained to hold that upon the whole record there is. no evidence of fraud warranting the submission of such an issue to the jury. Affirmed.