Esser v. Linderman
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the District Court of Philadelphia: No. 1424-, to July Term 1871. On the 3d of May 1866, Henry R. Linderman and others, brokers in Philadelphia, trading as Linderman, Ely & Co., brought an action of assumpsit against George W. Esser, of .Mauch Chunk, to recover from him a balance which they claimed to be due them on their purchase of stocks for him.
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Error to the District Court of Philadelphia: No. 1424-, to July Term 1871. On the 3d of May 1866, Henry R. Linderman and others, brokers in Philadelphia, trading as Linderman, Ely & Co., brought an action of assumpsit against George W. Esser, of .Mauch Chunk, to recover from him a balance which they claimed to be due them on their purchase of stocks for him. W. H. Ely, one of the plaintiffs, testified, that in 1865 the defendant wrote to the plaintiffs to purchase stock for him; the letter could not be found. They bought for him 200 shares of Mingo Oil stock May 22d 1865, 1000 shares of Royal…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered, by
Sharswood, J.
It certainly was not competent for the defendant to state in his testimony, what the contents of the letter of the plaintiffs, to him of August 16th 1865, led him to believe. The question was what he had a right to infer from it, and that was a question of law upon the letter itself. There was no extrinsic evidence which created any ambiguity in the language, and which would have carried the case to the jury according to Smith v. Thompson, 8 Common Bench 44. “ Your account,” says the letter, “ should be strengthened by a deposit of say…