PHILIP WALTER, APPELLANT,
v.
THE FLORIDA SAVINGS BANK AND REAL ESTATE EXCHANGE, APPELLEE

Fla. | 1884-06-01
20 Fla. 826 Florida Supreme Court (1884) Positive Treatment
Cited by 17 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Philip Walter sued The Florida Savings Bank for breach of contract alleging the bank promised to deliver certain certificates of value. The bank pleaded that it acted as an agent for Huling, not on its own behalf, and the jury returned a verdict in the bank's favor. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that Walter failed to preserve error because the record lacked the trial testimony and jury instructions necessary to review his claims.


Holding

The court affirmed the judgment because the plaintiff failed to preserve error for appellate review. Without the trial testimony, evidence, and jury instructions in the record, the court could not determine whether the trial court erred in ruling on the pleadings or whether any such error affected the verdict.


Key Quotes

“On the pleadings alone the plaintiff was not entitled to verdict and judgment. He must prove his case, and show what damages he sustained.”

Establishes that the plaintiff bore the burden of proving his case at trial, not merely at the pleading stage.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Walter sued the bank for damages on a contract for the delivery of certificates of value. Part of the contract was evidenced by a written receipt for …

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court

The Chief-Justice delivered the opinion of the court.

Appellant sued defendant for damages on contract whereby it is alleged the defendant, agreed to deliver to plaintiff certain certificates of value. A part of the contract set out in one of the counts was in writing, embodied in a receipt for a part of the purchase price. Defendant pleaded to each count in the declaration that it did not promise as alleged, and also pleaded specially that the agreement sued on was not its contract but was the contract of one Huling, for whom it was acting as an agent, of which plaintiff had notice.

Plaintiff demurred to éach of the special pleas, and the demurrers being overruled, joined issue on the pleas. On the third trial of the cause a verdict was rendered in favor of defendant. A motion for a new trial was made and denied and judgment entered against the plaintiff. Erom this judgment plaintiff appeals.

The errors assigned are the overruling of the demurrers to the pleas.

There is none of the testimony at the trial contained in the record. Every material fact alleged in the declaration, except the signing of the receipt containing a portion of the agreement, was put in issue by the pleas denying the contract as alleged. On the pleadings alone the plaintiff was not entitled to verdict and judgment. He must prove his case, and show what damages he sustained.

Nor is the charge of the Judge to the-jury before us, nor is there anything here showing exceptions to any proceeding at the trial whereby an error is patent. The motion for a new trial was made upon the grounds that the verdict was against the evidence and against the charge of the court, but we have neither the evidence nor the charge.

¥e have no means of knowing that the plaintiff offered any testimony whatever at the trial. How then can we determine that the court erred in refusing a new trial ?

But the argument is advanced that the court improperly overruled plaintiff’s demurrers to the special pleas, whereby the court erroneously ruled that the matter of these special pleas constituted grounds of defence to the plaintiff’s action. However erroneous may have been this ruling upon the pleas we still cannot conceive how the verdict was affected, for we have no evidence that the-court heard auy testimony under tliem. Indeed, in examining these pleas we are unable to see that they amount to anything more than a denial that defendant made the alleged contract. Any testimony contemplated by the pleas could, therefore, as well have been given under the general issue as under the special pleas. The issue was whether the contract was that of the defendant or whether it was the contract of Iluling. Whether the facts set out in these special pleas could have been shown to defeat the right of action under the one count which alleged that the contract was in writing, and thus to vary the terms of the writing, is not a question presented by the record, for we do not know whether any, or what testimony was offered by either party.

It does not appear, therefore, that any error was committed which substantially affected the rights of the plaintiff, and the judgment must be affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Coogler v. Rogers, 25 Fla. 853 (Fla. 1889)
  • Berger v. E. Berger & Co., 76 Fla. 503 (Fla. 1918)
    …lied- by this court in cases where pleas were attacked by demurrers, and we can perceive no reason for not applying the rule in cases where declarations containing several counts [*508] are attacked, by demurrers. See Walter v. Florida Savings Bank, 20 Fla. 826; Parkhurst v. Stone, 36 Fla. 456, 18 South. Rep. 594; Williams Co. v. Pensacola, St. A. & G. S. S. Co., 57 Fla. 237, 48 South. Rep. 630; McDougald v. Bass, 53 Fla. 142, 43 South. Rep. 778; McCallum v. Driggs, 35 Fla. 277, 17 South. Rep. 407; Jackson…
  • Egbert C. Sammis v. James, 31 Fla. 10 (Fla. 1893)

Previewing 3 of 9 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw